GIFT   OF 


Of 


INTERESTING 
NEIGHBORS 


BY 

OLIVER  P.  JENKINS 

Emeritus  Professor  of  Physiology,  Stanford  University,  California 


81  ILLUSTRATIONS  BY 
W.  S.  ATKINSON 


PHILADELPHIA 

P.  BLAKISTON'S  SON  &  CO. 

1012  WALNUT  STREET 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  P.  BLAKISTON'S  SON  &  Co. 


PRINTED    INT    U.    S.   A. 
BY    THE    MAPLE    PRESS    YORK    PA 


PREFACE 

The  stories  that  follow  in  this  little  book  began 
with  some  that  were  prepared  for  a  small  group 
of  children  in  whom  the  author  was  affectionately 
interested.  The  reason  for  the  stories  being 
written  is  that  some  members  of  this  group  resided 
elsewhere.  Through  these  children  the  stories 
became  known  to  a  larger  circle  and  there  arose  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  new  acquaintances 
(among  them  some  teachers)  to  have  them 
compiled  and  published. 

Despite  the  efforts  of  those  who  have  great 
faith  in  the  educational  value  of  a  knowledge  of 
nature,  there  still  remains  much  to>  be  accom- 
plished. Consequently,  no  one  need  apologize  for 
an  honest  attempt,  no  matter  how  humble,  to 
bring  young  children  in  contact  with  the  wholesome 
intellectual  stimulus  and  satisfying  knowledge  that 
comes  from  an  acquaintance  with  the  wonders  of 
out  of  door  life. 

One  might  well  ask  what  principle  should  guide 
one  in  making  a  selection,  from  the  great  wealth  of 
material  that  is  available,  when  but  a  very  few 
subjects  can  be  presented  in  this  form.  The  con- 
fession must  be  made,  that  no  great  principle  has 
been  conscious  in  the  author's  mind  in  the  selection 
of  subjects,  unless  that  of  taking  up  what  is  near 

V 

4  8  G  o ]  j  I 


VI  PREFACE 

at  hand,  or  more  or  less  easily  available  and  easily 
understood,  may  be  called  a  principle.  Many 
other  selections  equally  as  good  as  those  that  follow 
might  have  been  made. 

As  may  readily  be  seen,  no  attempt  has  been 
made  to  introduce  what  might  be  called  the  tech- 
nical science  of  the  objects  treated.  That  valuable 
knowledge  of  nature  can  come  to  better  advantage 
when  the  children  are  older  and  it  will  then  be 
entered  into  with  greater  intelligence  and  zest  by 
them  if  they  have  had  already  a  happy  experience 
and  familiarity  with  the  objects  and  phenomena  all 
about  them. 

It  was  thought  best  to  use  enough  detail  to  make 
a  clear  picture  of  some  phase  of  the  life  of  an  object, 
and  this  has  been  attempted  with  the  milkweed 
butterfly.  If,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  this  has 
been  carried  too  far,  the  explanation  is,  that  by 
giving  a  fuller  account  of  the  life  of  at  least  one  of 
the  butterflies  the  children  would  have  a  guide 
to  the  deeper  study  of  these  attractive  creatures. 
The  one  chosen  is  widely  distributed  and  the 
teacher  can  find  excellent  accounts  of  its  life  »in 
many  books. 

While  this  and  the  other  little  books  to  follow 
are  termed  readers,  the  author  perhaps  need  not 
insist  that  the  value  of  each  lesson  is  greatly 
enhanced  by  having  before  the  pupils  when  possible 
the  real  object  read  about.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  majority  of  the  objects  can  be  found  in  most 
parts  of  our  country. 


PREFACE  Vll 

A  list  of  reference  books  has  not  been  given,  for 
the  reason  that  at  the  present  time  there  is  such  a 
large  number  of  excellent  works  on  entomology, 
zoology,  botany  and  nature  study,  that  any  teacher 
who  wisely  wishes  to  be  informed  in  regard  to  these 
and  similar  subjects  can  readily  get  the  titles. 
This  might  be  said  to  be  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge. 

The  drawings  are  the  work  of  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkin- 
son to  whom  acknowledgment  is  here  made  for 
his  interest  hi  the  work  and  the  excellence  of 
the  illustrations. 

OLIVER  P.  JENKINS. 

Stanford  University, 


CONTENTS 

THE  MAGIC  HOUSE  ......  ,,„;,...,>  1 

THE  LEAF-CUTTER  BEE ;   •  ,.    .  9 

THE  CARPENTER-BEE  ..<.....*.   4  -  14 

How  THE  TEACHER  WAS  TAUGHT .    ..;,,    . .;  .  21 

A  CATERPILLAR  REGIMENT.   .   *    .  '>,!./ ',:>  >•   .  27 

MUSHROOMS ,.<>;••  34 

SOME  TOAD  STORIES: 

A  Homely  Friend ...  ,  ....  46 

Little  Wilbur  and  His  Toad  Troubles  .    .    .  51 

An  Innocent  Pet.    .^    .....    *    .    .-  .  55 

Where  the  Toads  Come  From.     A  Picnic   .  56 

How  a  Toad  Begins  Life .   .  •< -] -,  >.  .   ,  \    .  62 
THE  SILKWORM: 

Its  Great  Work ;|./^.  >    .    .  69 

A  Queen  Discovers  the  Silkworm     .    . ;.    .  71 

Our  Family  of  Silkworms 75 

Spinning  the  Silk 78 

Silkworm  Cocoons 80 

The  Silkworm  Moth.    .    .    .    ,  .    .    ....  81 

A  SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE  FRIEND 84 

A  SKILFUL  MASON 93 

THE  MILKWEED  BUTTERFLY.    THE  MONARCH  : 

A  Tree  Blossoming  with  Butterflies     .   ,    .  100 

The  Life  of  the  Milkweed  Butterfly .    .  , .  J ,  102 
The  Caterpillar  on  Its  Milkweed  Home  .    .105 

ix 


X  CONTENTS 

The  Chrysalis 112 

The  Coming  out  of  the  Butterfly  .    .  '.    .    .   114 

The  Monarch's  Migrations 116 

Studying  Butterflies.    .    .    .    .    .    .    ,    .    .    .   117 

THE  TOMATO-WORM.   .   .    ..........   120 

The  HUMMING-BIRD  MOTH.    .   .,.;.    .  \    .    .   126 
A  GENTLE  TIGER .    ...    .    .    .'.       ....   133 

EGGS  ON  POLES  .    :    .    /  .    .    .    .    .    •'   •   ••    •   139 

THE  ANT-LION.    ......    .......  147 

SOME  WAYS  OF  THE  DANDELION  : 

The  Children  Learn  Some  of  Its  Tricks   .    .   152 
THE  BAND  OF  SEED  HUNTERS  : 

BaUoon  Seeds , 160 

Seeds  that  Steal  Rides  .    .    .    .    .    .  Y  .    .   164 

Seeds  with  Wings.    ...   .'.—  ;/  .  v.    .   168 

Sling  Seeds V.    .    .    .    .    .   170 

Seed  Story  Night.    ...    .    V  .'  '.'-.    .    .  173 

Bessie's  Acanthus.    .    ...    .    .    •    -    •       173 

John's  Cocoa-nut  Trees  ,.',*>/.   ...    .    .   174 

Nancy's  Seed-carrying  Birds  .    ....    .   176 

Tom's  Squirting  Cucumber.    •    ....    .   177 

FLOWERS: 

The  Parts  of  the  Flower  Work  to  Form  the 

Seeds V/.:  •   182 

Getting  the  Pollen  on  the  Stigma .   v  ..   .    .   187 
A   HUMMING-BIRD    FLOWER.    THE    SCARLET 

SALVIA.     . .   190 

BUMBLE-BEE  FLOWERS: 

The  Snapdragon 195 

Butter-and-eggs 198 

The  Columbine  and  Larkspur 199 


CONTENTS  XI 

The  Iris  Blossom  . 202 

Butterfly  Flowers 205 

FLOWERS  FOR  VARIOUS  INSECTS  .    ...    .   .  207 

Buttercups  and  Apple  Blossoms    .    ...    .  207 

The  Sunflower ;,    .   '.    .    .  207 

NANCY'S  LETTER  ABOUT: 

Moth  Flowers  and  Other  Matters    .    .    .   ,  211 

A  PLANT  THIEF.    .    .   .   .   .   ,^.    .    ,   .    .    .    .  219 

PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS.   .   :  v  .    ...  224 

Pitcher  Plants '/(.',/.    .  225 

The  Sundew  .".   .   .   /;U  ...  -   •  '•  .1.''...  *  233 

Venus  Flytrap \.    ...  237 

THE  CAMPUS  SICKLE-BILL.    THE  CALIFORNIA 

THRASHER: 

Bird  Life  on  the  Stanford  Campus   .    ."  v  .  241 

The  Sickle-bill "".    .    .    .    . :  I   .    .243 

Feeding  the  Sickle-bill 245 

Relatives  of  the  California  Thrasher  247 


THE  MAGIC  HOUSE 

Sometimes  people  have  a  hard  time  getting  a 
house  to  live  in.  They  search  all  over  town 
only  to  find  that  the  houses  are  occupied  by 
somebody  else,  so  they  have  to  build  one  for 
themselves.  They  get  boards,  bricks,  nails,  mor- 
tar, stones,  iron,  pipes,  wires  and  many  other 
things  together.  Then  they  have  to  get  men  with 
hammers  and  saws,  spades  and  trowels  who 
hammer  and  pound  and  saw  and  dig,  and  work 
hard  for  many  weeks  to  build  the  house.  And 
then  they  must  find  painters  to  paint  it  and 
finish  it  up  to  look  nice.  That  is  a  lot  of  trouble 
and  bother. 

But  there  is  one  little  animal  that  can  build  her 
house  by  what  looks  just  like  magic.  This  is  the 
little  gall-fly.  There  are  many  kinds  of  gall-flies 
which  can"  do  this,  but  this  story  is  about  one  that 
builds  her  house  on  the  White  Oak  tree. 

She  lays  eggs,  from  which  the  baby  gall-flies 
are  hatched,  and  this  is  the  way  she  goes  about  it. 

She  alights  on  the  White  Oak  in  the  spring 
time  and  searches  over  the  branches  until  she 
finds  a  new  bud  that  is  just  about  to  grow  into  a 
new  branch.  She  lays  her  eggs  in  the  bud,  and 
gives  them  some  kind  of  charm  so  that  just  when 
the  babies  hatch  out  and  begin  to  grow,  they  use 


' 

INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

»*»  ^.ft-o-  • 


the  charm  on  thfe  bad.  This  then,  instead  of 
growing  into  a  twig  or  branch,  grows  like  magic 
into  a  ball-shaped  house  which  covers  over  the 
gall-fly  babies.  So  down  deep  in  this  new  house, 
in  tiny  round  rooms,  the  gall-fly  babies  live  and 
feed  and  grow.  At  first  the  gall-fly  babies  are 
little  white  things  called  grubs  or  larvae.  Their 
ball-shaped  house  we  call  an  oak-gall.  The  food  of 
the  babies  is  the  juice  of  the  oak  tree  which  is 
called  sap  and  which  comes  from  the  twig  of  the 
oak  tree  into  the  oak-gall  and  seeps  to  them 
through  the  walls  of  their  tiny  rooms.  Thus  you 
see  that  they  not  only  find  the  house  all  fur- 
nished for  them,  but  also  that  their  food  is  brought 
right  to  their  rooms.  The  oak  sap  is  the  same  to 
them  as  milk  is  to  human  babies. 

The  outside  of  the  gall  is  hard  and  smooth  and 
keeps  most  of  the  bad  things  away  from  the  little 
fellows.  Each  little  grub  eats  the  food  that  comes 
to  it,  and  gets  fat.  Its  little  white  fat  body  would 
be  fine  food  for  other  little  animals  if  they  could 
get  at  it. 

Now  there  is  the  little  lizard  which  hunts  around 
for  just  such  food.  To  the  gall-fly  baby  he  is  a 
real  hobgoblin.  I  think  he  is  the  one  the  gall-fly 
mother  means  when  she  says:  "The  goblins  will 
get  you  if  you  don't  watch  out."  But  when  the 
lizard  comes  up  to  the  gall  house  he  finds  it  so  hard 
and  smooth  that  he  cannot  bite  into  it  or  do  a 
thing  to  it,  so  the  goblin  has  to  go  away  and  get  his 
dinner,  somewhere  else. 


THE   MAGIC   HOUSE 


\w 

- 


FIG.  1. — The  bird   (a  crested  flycatcher)  cannot  harm  the  grub  of 
the  gall-fly  secure  in  its  house. 


4  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

And  there  are  the  birds.  Now  the  birds  that 
alight  on  the  oak  tree  are  very  nice  looking  ani- 
mals. They  dress  in  fine  feathers  and  keep  them- 
selves neat  and  clean.  Some  twitter  very  sweetly; 
others  sing  beautifully  and  no  doubt  all  of  them 
think  themselves  very  lovely,  but  let  me  tell  you 
that  some  of  them  hunt  up  and  down  the  limbs 
of  the  trees  for  little  insects  and  their  babies,  and 
whenever  they  catch  them,  gobble  them  right 
down,  just  like  you  would  a  chocolate  drop  or  a 
marshmallow.  They  think  a  nice  white  grub  is 
about  the  tastiest  thing  there  is.  But  when  a  bird 
comes  to  a  gall  house,  no  matter  how  badly  he 
wants  the  gall-fly  baby,  he  can't  touch  it.  The 
gall  house  is  too  hard  for  him  to  pick  into  and  he 
might  as  well  try  to  scratch  into  a  rock  as  to 
scratch  the  gall-fly  out  of  it.  While  this  spry 
little  bird  thinks  he  is  pretty  smart,  he  is  not  smart 
enough  to  get  ahead  of  the  gall-fly.  I  suppose 
that  if  the  gall-fly  told  her  children  any  stories, 
she  would  call  the  bird  a  big  ogre. 

Then  there  is  another  animal  that  must  look 
to  the  little  gall-fly  like  a  terrible  griffin.  It  is  the 
tree-frog.  She  sneaks  around  the  leaves  and  bark 
of  the  tree  ready  to  snap  up  with  her  big  mouth 
any  poor  insect  that  is  not  on  the  look-out.  But 
when  the  tree-frog  hops  and  crawls  about  amongst 
the  branches  and  leaves  and  comes  upon  the  gall 
house,  she  crawls  all  over  it  but  can't  find  a 
window  or  a  chimney  to  sneak  in.  She  stares  at  it 
with  her  big  eyes  as  much  as  to  say,  "  What  do  you 


THE   MAGIC   HOUSE  5 

think  of  that?"  But  she  has  to  pass  on  and  make 
her  supper  on  insects  which  have  no  houses. 

When  there  comes  a  heavy  rain  storm  which 
soaks  the  trees  and  ground  and  everything  through 
and  through  the  water  runs  right  off  the  gall  house 
and  does  not  touch  the  gall  babies.  There  they  lie 
tucked  up  nice  and  dry  and  as  snug  as  a  bug  in  a 
rug,  or  snugger. 

And  when  the  wind  blows,  it  only  swings  the 
house  up  and  down  and  does  not  hurt  anything. 
No  doubt  the  gall-fly  mother  could  have  been  the 
first  to  sing:  "Rock  a  bye  baby  in  the  tree  top, 
When  the  wind  blows,  the  cradle  will  rock." 
The  gall-fly  baby's  cradle  grows  so  tightly  to  the 
tree  branch  that  it  does  not  fall  except,  of  course, 
when  the  bough  breaks. 

Now  do  you  not  think  that  the  gall-fly  people  are 
like  fairies,  since  the  tiny  gall-fly  baby,  when  it  is 
first  hatched  out  of  the  very  tiny  egg,  can,  by 
touching  the  leaf  bud  with  something,  make  it 
grow  up  to  be  what,  to  it,  is  a  very  large  and  well 
furnished  house  with  just  the  right  kind  of  food 
for  it? 

While  the  gall-fly  egg  and  later  the  baby  is  well 
cared  for  by  the  house  and  food,  prepared  as  if  by 
magic,  still  it  has  trouble  sometimes.  There  are 
some  other  insects  which  are  bad  to  it  if  they  get  a 
chance.  As  they  have  no  home  of  their  own,  they 
manage  to  pierce  a  small  hole  in  the  gall  while  it  is 
tender^and  still  very  small,  and  lay  their  eggs  in  it 
too.  When  these  eggs  are  hatched,  these  robber 


6 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


grubs  steal  the  gall  baby's' food  and,  sad  to  say, 
some  times  eat  the  gall  baby  too.  But  they  do  not 
always  get  the  gall  children. 

When  the  gall-fly  babies,  called  larvae,  eat 
enough  and  grow  big  enough,  they  change  into  the 
form  of  the  mother  gall-fly  and  have  wings.  They 
have  good  strong  mouths  and  gnaw  their  way  out  of 


FIG.  2. — The  giant  oak  ball.    The  gall-fly  has  just  come  out  of  its 

home 

the  house  and  come  out  of  the  little  round  holes 
you  can  see  in  the  picture  of  a  gall  (Fig.  2). 
They  then  fly  away  and  lay  eggs  on  other  oak 
buds,  and  these  will  grow  up  into  other  gall  houses. 
There  are  many  kinds  of  gall-flies  and  each  makes 
its  own  kind  of  gall.  The  kind  I  have  been  telling 
you  about  is  the  largest  kind  and  for  that  reason 
is  called  the  giant  oak-gall.  Sometimes  they  are 
called  oak  apples  because  they  look  like  apples. 


THE   MAGIC   HOUSE  7 

Gall-flies  make  galls  on  other  sorts  of  trees  and 
plants  and  sometimes  they  make  them  on  the 
leaves  or  on  the  roots  instead  of  on  the  twigs  or 
branches. 

If  you  wish  to  gather  galls  and  watch  the  gall-flies 
come  out,  the  best  time  is,  of  course,  in  the  spring 
and  summer  when  the  gall-flies  are  laying  their 
eggs  and  the  galls  are  growing.  They  grow 
through  the  summer,  but  most  of  them  come  out 
in  the  fall. 

Of  course  if  you  wish  to  obtain  live  gall-flies  the 
galls  should  be  taken  only  when  they  are  about 
fully  grown.  Otherwise  the  food  sap  would  be  stop- 
ped and  the  gall  babies  could  not  finish  their  grow- 
ing. You  can  cut  open  some  of  the  dry  galls  and 
see  where  the  little  grubs  lived  and  when  you  get 
fresh  galls  you  can  cut  them  open  and  find  the 
live  grubs. 

There  are  a  few  other  insects  which  make  galls 
but  most  of  the  galls  are  made  by  gall-flies. 

A  very  good  way  to  catch  the  gall-flies  as  they 
come  out  is  to  put  the  galls  into  a  paper  box  with  a 
good  lid.  A  shoe  box  or  a  candy  box  will  do. 
In  one  end  of  the  box  make  a  small  hole  into  which 
the  neck  of  a  small  bottle  is  tightly  fitted,  leaving 
the  wide  part  of  the  bottle  out  of  the  box.  After  a 
while,  the  new  gall-flies  gnaw  their  way  out  of 
their  dark  home  and  get  into  the  box  instead  of  the 
open  sunshine,  so  they  hurry  to  the  place  where  the 
light  gets  in,  which  is  the  neick  of  the  bottle, 
and  crawl  into  it  and  then  you  see  them  in  the 


8  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

bottle.  A  test  tube  can  be  used  instead  of  a 
bottle. 

Another  good  way  to  catch  them  is  to  put  the 
galls  into  a  glass  jar  and  tie  over  its  mouth  a  piece 
of  fine  netting  or  cloth  that  will  let  air  in  but  will 
not  let  the  gall-flies  get  out. 

Of  course  the  box  and  bottle,  or  glass  jar,  can  be 
used  for  other  insect  eggs  and  also  for  cocoons. 


THE  LEAF-CUTTER  BEE 

In  the  garden  there  grows  a  lilac  bush  which 
everybody  loves  for  the  beautiful  sweet  smelling 
flowers  it  gives  us  early  in  the  spring.  One  day 
after  the  lilac  flowers  were  all  gone,  we  were  looking 
at  the  plant,  when  some  of  the  leaves  looked  a 


FIG.   3. — A  lilac  leaf  with  pieces  cut  out  by  a  leaf-cutter  bee. 

little  strange.  They  had  pieces  taken  out  of 
them,  just  as  if  some  one  had  done  it  with  small 
sharp  scissors.  That  was  quite  a  puzzle,  for  why 
should  anyone  wish  to  do  that? 

By  watching  the  bush  day  by  day  the  mystery 
was  solved.    A  little  insect,  which  looked  some- 

9 


10  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

thing  like  a  bee,  came  to  the  bush.  She  alighted 
on  a  leaf  and  began  cutting  out  a  round  piece  of 
the  leafwithherjaws.  She  worked  quickly  and  soon 
had  the  piece  out  and  then  flew  away  with  it, 
holding  it  tightly  with  her  two  hindmost  legs. 
After  a  time,  back  she  flew  and  began  to  cut  out 
another  piece.  This  time  the  piece  was  a  little 
longer  with  rounded  ends.  When  she  flew  away 

with  it,  she  looked  funny 
with  this  bit  of  leaf  waving 
in  the  air  like  a  tiny  flag. 
What  was  she  up  to?  That 
was  the  next  puzzle.  Well, 
quite  a  way  off  she  came  to 

FIG.  4.— The  leaf-cutter  ,,   ,     ,      .      ,,  , 

bee  a  small  hole  in  the  ground. 

She  alighted  near  it  and  ran 

to  its  mouth  and  disappeared  down  the  hole  with 
the  piece  of  leaf.  Soon  she  was  out  again  and  off 
for  another  piece.  She  went  back  and  forth  from 
the  lilac  bush  many  times  for  pieces  of  leaves. 

In  the  hole  was  her  nest  in  which  she  would  lay 
her  eggs.  From  these  would  be  hatched  the 
white  grubs  which  would,  in  time,  turn  into  bees 
like  their  mother. 

People  who  have  spent  much  time  watching 
these  bees  have  found  many  nests  and  have  taken 
them  apart  to  see  how  they  were  made.  The  bee 
first  digs  a  hole  in  the  ground  a  few  inches  deep. 
Or  she  may  clean  out  a  place  in  some  rotting  post 
or  tree,  or  she  may  even  use  a  crack  between  two 
boards  that  just  suits  her. 


THE    LEAF-CUTTER  BEE 


11 


After  getting  the  place  all  ready  she  seeks  for  the 
kind  of  leaves  that  suit  her.  Our  bee  used  Jilac 
leaves,  but  this  kind  of  bee  very  often  uses  rose 
leaves. 

Then  she  begins  to  cut  out  the  pieces  of  leaves. 
Because  she  does  this  she  is  called  the  leaf-cutter 
bee.  She  has  sharp  strong  jaws 
which  work  like  a  pair  of  scissors. 
She  alights  on  the  edge  of  a  leaf 
and  very  quickly  cuts  out  either  a 
round  or  oblong  shaped  piece.  It 
is  cut  very  neatly  and  true.  She 
takes  hold  of  the  piece  with  her 
two  hindmost  legs  and  flies  away 
to  her  nest.  The  round  piece  she 
presses  down  with  her  head  to  the 
bottom  of  the  nest.  The  oblong 
piece  she  uses  to  line  the  sides  of 
the  nest. 

Then  she  visits  some  flowers  and 
gathers  a  little  honey  and  the  dust, 
called  pollen,  that  comes  off  the  stamens,  and  mixes 
them  together  into  a  sort  of  sweet  cake.  She  puts 
this  in  the  nest  and  then  lays  an  egg  on  it.  Then 
she  flies  to  the  bush  again,  this  time  for  a  round 
piece  of  leaf.  She  pushes  this  down  to  cover  over 
the  sweet  cake  and  egg.  Now  she  has  provided 
for  one  egg. 

On  top  of  the  lid  of  this  first  room  of  the  nest, 
she  builds  another  with  pieces  of  leaves,  just  like 
the  first.  She  gathers  honey  and  pollen  and 


FIG  5. — Nest  of  the 
leaf-cutter  bee. 


12  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

makes  another  sweet  cake,  lays  another  egg  and 
puts  a  round  leaf  top  on  and  she  has  number  two 
done,  so  that  she  has  now  cared  for  two  of  her 
children. 

She  works  away  in  this  manner  until  she  has  the 
hole  she  made  in  the  ground  filled  with  little  nests 
one  on  top  of  the  other.  Each  one  with  an  egg 
and  a  sweet  cake  in  it. 

Then  she  may  make  other  holes  in  the  ground 
and  fill  them  in  the  same  way,  for  she  is  a  very  busy 
bee  and  works  fast  and  hard. 

In  making  up  these  nests  she  sometimes  uses 
hundreds  of  pieces  of  leaves  and  must  visit  hun- 
dreds of  flowers  for  honey  and  pollen.  One  man 
took  apart  the  nests  of  one  bee  and  counted  one 
thousand  pieces  of  leaves  which  she  had  cut 
out  and  carried  to  her  nest.  No  one  knows  how 
many  flowers  she  had  to  visit  to  get  the  things 
with  which  to  make  sweet  cakes  for  her  babies. 

The  eggs  in  these  snug  little  nests  lie  still  quite 
a  while  and  then  tiny  white  grubs  are  hatched, 
just  like  the  grubs  of  all  other  kinds  of  bees. 
Each  little  grub  soon  finds  the  sweet  cake  its 
mother  made  and  begins  to  eat  away  on  it.  As 
this  is  fine  and  nourishing,  it  grows  well  on  it,  and 
needs  no  other  food.  In  time  it  gets  to  be  about 
as  big  as  its  mother  but  does  not  look  like  her  yet. 
It  looks  like  a  short  fat  white  worm.  Then  it 
stops  eating  and  spins  a  thin  silk  cocoon  about 
itself  and  lies  still  as  if  asleep.  But  like  most 
insects  while  in  the  cocoon  it  changes  to  another 


THE   LEAF-CUTTER  BEE  13 

strange  form  called  a  pupa.  Then  after  some 
time,  the  pupa  changes  into  a  leaf-cutter  bee. 
Each  of  these  new  bees  has  strong  jaws  and  is 
able  to  gnaw  its  way  out  of  the  nest.  Soon  then, 
there  comes  out  of  the  rows  of  nests  a  little  group 
of  leaf-cutter  bees  ready  for  work.  Then  those 
amongst  them  that  are  to  be  mother  bees  fly  forth 
in  different  directions  to  find  good  places  to  start 
the  work  which  we  found  the  first  mother  doing, 
that  of  making  nests  and  cutting  leaves,  gathering 
honey  and  pollen  and  laying  eggs  for  new  families 
of  leaf-cutter  bees,  just  as  they  have  been  doing 
for  thousands  of  years. 

While  mother  bees  are  so  hard-working  and  take 
such  good  care  of  their  eggs  and  children  we  shall 
always  have  the  interesting  leaf-cutter  bees  with  us. 

You  may  not  be  able  to  find  any  nests  of  the 
leaf-cutter  bee  because  they  are  hidden  away  very 
carefully.  But  you  can  often  find  rose  leaves  or 
lilac  leaves  neatly  cut  out,  as  in  the  picture.  When 
you  find  a  leaf  like  that  you  can  press  it  and  put 
it  in  your  scrap  book  and  pretend  that  the  little 
leaf-cutter  bee  marked  her  name  that  way. 
Whenever  you  look  at  the  leaf  you  can  think  of  the 
careful  busy  little  bee  that  cut  it.  We  have 
pressed  and  kept  our  lilac  leaves  so  as  to  remember 
our  bee. 


THE  CARPENTER-BEE 

We  were  walking  about  the  garden,  enjoying  the 
sight  and  scents  of  the  healthy  growing  plants.  Soon 
we  stopped  before  a  bed  of  flowers.  All  over  it  were 
a  number  of  busy  insects.  Brown  and  yellow 
honey-bees,  bright  colored  wasps,  and  beetles, 
black,  green  and  red,  were  flitting  from  flower  to 
flower.  Here  and  there  a  butterfly  came  to  add 
more  beautiful  colors  to  the  scene.  Each  of  these 
strange  little  beings  seemed  to  be  getting  some- 
thing from  the  brilliant  and  fragrant  bed  of 
flowers  that  made  them  lively  and  happy. 
Suddenly,  a  big  black  bee-like  insect,  as  big  as  a 

bumble-bee,  flew  in 
with  a  rush.  It  hur- 
riedly thrust  its  head 
into  one  flower  after 
another  and  before  we 
could  see  it  fairly  well, 

FIG.  6.-The  carpenter-bee.  °ff     'li     buZZ6(1     llke     a- 

black  streak. 

Well  now,  what  was  that?  It  looked  like  a 
bumble-bee,  but  it  certainly  was  not  a  bumble-bee. 
For  that  easy  going  old  thing  rolls  along  more 
slowly  and  takes  more  time  to  push  its  nose  into 
the  different  cups  of  nectar  which  the  flowers  are 
holding  up  for  it  to  sup.  But  this  new  one  went 
racing  along  at  such  a  rate  that  it  must  have  just 

14 


THE    CARPENTER-BEE  15 

gobbled  up  whatever  it  got  from  the  flowers. 
Well,  whenever  anybody  makes  a  great  stir 
everybody  else  wishes  to  know  right  away 
what  it  is  all  about. 

So  we  got  curious  to  know  who  this  little  whirl- 
wind was.  We  waited  for  the  black  buzzing 
streak  to  come  back  but  it  wouldn't  do  it.  No 
doubt  one  who  seemed  to  have  so  much  business  to 
attend  to  and  could  fly  so  fast  had  other  flower- 
beds far  away  to  visit. 

So  we  appealed  to  a  friend  standing  near,  who 
knows  much  about  insects,  to  help  us  out.  She 
told  us  that  that  was  the  big  carpenter-bee.  A 
carpenter-bee?  Well,  we  had  seen  and  heard  of 
mason-bees  which  make  mortar  and  build  houses 
with  it;  and  tailor-bees  which  cut  out  pieces  of 
leaves,  like  cloth,  with  which  to  line  their  nests; 
now  here  is  a  carpenter-bee.  "Yes,"  said  the 
friend  who  knows  insects,  "and  there  are  miner- 
bees  which  bore  holes  in  the  ground  like  miners 
do."  The  miners  dig  for  gold  and  silver  but  the 
miner-bees  bore  holes  in  the  ground  to  make 
themselves  nests  to  lay  eggs  in.  If  we  will  only 
take  the  trouble  to  find  out,  we  will  be  astonished 
at  the  wonderful  things  the  different  kinds  of  bees 
and  many  other  kinds  of  insects  are  doing  right 
under  our  feet,  over  our  heads,  and  all  around  us. 

But  just  now  we  are  concerned  about  this  big 
carpenter-bee.  It  is  called  a  carpenter-bee  because 
it  works  in  wood.  It  has  a  big  head  and  very 
sharp,  strong  jaws.  For  its  nest,  it  bores'  a  hole 


16 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


right  into  solid  wood,  large  enough  to  put  your 
finger  in.  It  may  pick  out  a  fence  post,  a  timber 
in  the  house  or  barn,  or  the  trunk  of  a  fallen  tree. 
If  the  wood  is  of  a  hard  kind,  it  has  to  work  very 
slowly  and  with  great  labor.  But  it  has  great 
patience  and  great  industry  and  works  away  day 
after  day  until  it  has  made  a  hole 
several  inches  deep.  The  hole  is 
straight  for  a  little  way  and  then 
makes  a  turn  down  the  post  or  log. 
When  done,  it  may  be  as  much  as 
a  foot  long.  That  is  great  work  for 
so  small  an  animal. 

This  hole  is  its  house  and  nest  and 
is  ready  for  the  egg  laying.  Now  its 
work  changes.  Just  like  the  leaf- 
cutter  bee  it  plans  to  put  a  sweet 
cake  of  honey  and  pollen,  made  from 
the  flowers,  beside  each  egg  that  it 
lays.  This  is  to  be  the  food  for  the 
little  worm-like  grub  that  will  hatch 
from  the  egg.  The  grub,  you  know,  just  the  same 
as  with  other  bees,  at  last  becomes  a  bee. 

It  must  be  quite  a  rest  from  the  hard  jaw-aching 
work  of  gnawing  wood  to  go  out  after  honey  and 
pollen  among  the  flowers.  This  was  what  the  big 
black  buzzer  was  doing  when  we  first  saw  her. 
She  gives  her  jaws  a  rest  and  uses  her  tongue  to  suck 
up  the  nectar.  Then  she  has  a  nice  brush  with  which 
to  gather  the  pollen.  When  she  gathers  enough 
of  both  to  make  a  cake  for  one  grub,  she  puts 


FIG.  7.— Nest  of 
a  carpenter-bee. 


THE    CARPENTER-BEE  17 

it  in  the  very  bottom  of  her  nest  and  lays  an  egg 
on  it. 

Next  she  takes  some  of  the  tiny  chips  she  saved 
from  the  boring  work  and  with  some  liquid  from 
her  mouth  she  glues  them  together  and  makes  a 
thin  but  strong  little  roof  across  the  hole  above  the 
cake  and  egg.  The  egg  and  cake  are  now  safely 
shut  up  in  a  tiny  room. 

Off  she  goes  for  more  pollen  and  nectar  for 
another  cake.  This  is  placed  just  above  the  first 
room  and  another  egg  is  laid  with  it.  A  roof  or 
cover  is  built  over  them  and  she  has  a  second 
room. 

She  works  quickly  at  this  until  she  has  the  hole 
she  bored  filled  with  little  rooms  one  above  the  other, 
an  egg  and  a  cake  in  each.  When  the  grub  is 
hatched  out  of  the  egg,  it  finds  the  cake  ready  for  it 
to  feed  upon. 

The  hard-working  mother  has  done  all  she  could 
to  give  her  children  a  well-protected  home  and 
provide  them  with  plenty  of  just  the  right  kind  of 
food  for  them  to  live  on  until  they  grow  up  to  be  as 
big  as  their  mother. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  some  other  insects,  and 
birds  too,  know  how  delicious  the  sweet  cakes  are 
and  how  tasty  the  fat  white  grubs  are.  And  they 
have  learned  ways  of  stealing  them,  although 
the  mother  bee  takes  care  to  place  the  eggs  and 
sweet  cakes  deep  down  in  a  hard  wood  tunnel. 
The  birds  can't  reach  very  far  down  the  hole, 
because  she  made  a  turn  in  it  as  you,  no  doubt, 


18  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

recall  when  she  bored  it  out.  But  certain  insects 
have  a  very  evil  way  of  acting  against  her.  When 
she  is  off  getting  honey  and  pollen  to  make  a  cake 
for  a  room,  these  sneaking  insects  slip  in  and  lay 
eggs  with  the  egg  she  has  laid..  They  know 
that  their  babes  will  hatch  out  along  with  the 
grub  that  comes  from  the  bee  egg. 

This  puts  these  enemies  right  there  in  its  own 
little  room  all  ready  to  eat  up  the  poor  bee  grub 
as  soon  as  it  is  fat  enough.  It  must  be  frightful 
to  wake  up  in  your  bed  to  find  an  ogre  ready  to  eat 
you  up,  and  your  room  shut  up  so  tight  that  no  one 
can  come  to  help  you. 

But  the  invading  insects  do  not  always  get  into 
the  nest  of  the  mother  bee  and  so  the  eggs  may  all 
hatch  and  soon  the  grubs  grow  to  be  bees.  When 
they  do,  the  one  in  the  lowest  room  is  ready  first, 
then  the  one  above  and  so  on  until  the  hole  is  full 
of  new  carpenter-bees  eager  to  go  to  work  as  their 
mother  did  as  soon  as  they  get  out. 

This  big  carpenter-bee,  with  its  noise  and  impor- 
tant ways,  made  us  first  take  notice  of  carpenter- 
bees.  We  soon  learned  that  there  are  many  other 
kinds  of  carpenter-bees. 

By  careful  watching,  we  saw  a  very  pretty  little 
blue-green  bee  very  modestly  hovering  over  the 
flowers  and  alighting  on  them.  She  was  pretty 
shy  and  darted  away  at  the  least  motion  toward 
her. 

She,  too,  has  strong  jaws,  but  being  so  small  she 
does  not  attempt  such  tough  jobs  as  does  the  big 


THE    CARPENTER-BEE  19 

carpenter-bee.  She  searches  out  stems  of  plants 
that  have  pith  in  the  center.  This  is  soft  and 
easy  to  bore  out.  She  makes  a  tunnel  in  the  pith 
center  of  the  stem  and  uses  this  as  her  home.  She 
makes  tiny  rooms  in  this  tunnel  just  as  the  big  bee 
does  in  the  hard  wood  and  lays  an  egg  in  each, 
provided  with  a  honey  cake  in  the  same  way. 

It  is  said  that  this  little  mother  bee  acts  differ- 
ently from  other  carpenter-bees,  for  when  she  has 
finished  her  work,  she  waits  at  the  top  of  the  tunnel 
for  her  children  to  come  out. 

Just  as  it  was  in  the  nest  of  the  big  carpenter-bee, 
so  in  this,  the  lowest  one  in  the  tunnel  changes  into 
a  bee  first,  because  the  first  egg  was  laid  there. 
Because  all  the  other  nests  are  above  it  this  first  one 
must  stay  down  there  cooped  up  in  its  room,  until 
the  others  are  changed  into  bees. 

This  they  do,  one  after  the  other,  but  all  must  lie 
quietly  until  the  uppermost  one  is  ready.  This 
one  then  gnaws  his  way  out  with  his  new  strong 
jaws,  then  the  next  one  below  him  does  likewise 
and  so  on  until  the  lowest  one  is  set  free  and  the 
whole  of  the  family  comes  forth. 

Now  the  waiting  little  mother  bee  can  be  proud 
of  her  little  flock  of  children  in  their  new  shining 
blue-green  clothes.  The  children  must  be  happy 
to  get  out  into  the  bright  sunshine  and  stretch 
their  pretty  wings  for  the  first  time.  But  for 
them  life  is  to  be  full  of  work  and  they  soon  fly 
away  to  repeat  the  kind  of  busy  life  their  pretty 
little  mother  lived.  Were  they  not  fortunate  in 


20  INTERESTING  NEIGHBORS 

having  her  with  them  to  start  them  off  in  life? 
One  little  girl  friend  of  mine  told  me  that  she  likes 
this  bee  best  because  it  waited  for  her  children 
instead  of  rushing  off  and  leaving  them  to  shift 
for  themselves. 


HOW  THE  TEACHER  WAS  TAUGHT ' 

Once  upon  a  time;  many  years  ago  in  a  little 
town  in  the  far  away  country,  France,  there  was  a 
little  school  full  of  boys  of  all  sizes.  The  boys 
were  full  of  life  and  mischief,  so  that  the  teacher 
had  all  he  could  do  to  keep  them  down  to  their 
lessons.  The  teacher  was  a  very  young  man  and 
did  his  best  to  interest  the  children  and  do  them 
some  good. 

One  day  in  the  week  they  had  school  out  of  doors. 
Teacher  and  pupils  tramped  off  to  a  field  to  practice 
measuring  land.  This  gave  them  a  chance  to  learn 
about  squares,  triangles  and  polygons  and  to 
make  up  problems  in  arithmetic.  The  pupils 
thought  it  great  fun,  for  there  were  many  things 
to  interest  them  besides  what  they  came  out 
for.  And  the  teacher  had  all  he  could  do  to  keep 
them  down  to  their  task. 

Once  when  he  was  at  one  end  of  the  measuring 
line,  some  of  the  boys  who  had  the  other  end 
seemed  to  have  dropped  it  and  were  busy  with 
something  else.  Of  course  the  teacher  had  to 
hurry  down  to  look  into  the  matter.  He  found 
that  the  boys  had  left  the  measuring  line  and  stakes 
and  were  picking  up,  here  and  there,  a  stone,  and 
were  poking  straws  into  it  and  sucking  something 
through  them.  They  were  getting  honey  from  a 
hard  rock. 

21 


22 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


This  time  the  pupils  could  teach  the  teacher 
something  they  knew  very  well  and  which  he  had 
never  heard  of.  They  gladly  showed  him  a  new 
trick  and  he  gladly  learned  it  from  them.  They 
now  all  joined  in  searching  for  stones  containing 
honey.  The  teacher  learned  for  the  first  time  that 


FIG.  8. — Mason  bee  and  nests. 

a  large  black  bee  made  a  little  house  of  a  sort 
of  mortar.  She  built  it  on  the  side  of  a  stone.  In 
the  rooms  of  this  house  she  had  placed  the  honey, 
of  which  the  boys  were  robbing  her. 

Well,  they  had  their  play  then  went  back  to  work 
and  to  school.     But  the  teacher  could  not  forget 


HOW   THE    TEACHER    WAS   TAUGHT  23 

the  bee  and  its  strange  house.  The  pupils  had 
taught  him  about  the  honey,  but  the  teacher 
wished  very  much  to  learn  more  about  the  won- 
derful ways  of  a  bee  that  could  make  mortar  and 
build  a  house  with  it.  So  later  he  returned 
to  the  field  to  find  out  what  he  could.  He  did  find 
out  many  curious  things  about  the  life  of  this 
strange  bee.  Then  he  tried  to  find  books  to  help 
him.  He  was  fortunate  to  learn  of  a  fine  book  with 
beautiful  pictures  of  many  kinds  of  bees  besides 
this  one,  by  a  noted  student  of  bees  and  other 
insects. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  life-long  study  of 
insects  by  a  man  who  is  known  as  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  those  who  have  found  out  a  great  number 
of  the  wonderful  things  that  go  on  in  the  insect 
world,  and  has  described  them  in  many  interesting 
books.  This  teacher  was  the  noted  French  student 
and  writer  of  insects,  Dr.  J.  H.  Fabre.  I  hope  you 
will  have  the  pleasure  of  reading  some  of  his 
charming  books. 

The  bee  that  started  this  fine  student  at  work 
was  one  of  the  mason-bees.  The  home  of  this  one 
is  in  France.  But  there  are  mason-bees  in  other 
countries  as  well.  We  have  them  in  the  United 
States.  The  mason-bee  that  Fabre  first  studied 
builds  her  house  on  the  surface  of  a  small  boulder. 
She  starts  it  first  by  building  up  a  cell,  a  sort  of 
little  jug  about  big  enough  to  hold  her  body.  She 
uses  little  bits  of  sand  and  gravel  which  she 
cements  together  very  neatly  to  form  the  little 


24  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

jug.  She  makes  the  cement  or  mortar  by  selecting 
just  the  right  kind  of  dirt  and  sand  which  she 
mixes  with  juices  from  her  mouth.  Her  jaws  are 
shaped  just  right  to  mix  and  lay  on  and 
smooth  the  mortar.  She  uses  them  just  like  a 
mason  uses  a  trowel  when  he  builds  a  wall  with 
stones  and  mortar. 

When  she  gets  her  little  jug  finished,  she,  like 
other  kinds  of  bees,  visits  the  flowers  for  nectar 
and  pollen.  She  puts  the  honey  in  the  jug,  then 
mixes  the  pollen  with  it  and  thus  makes  a  honey 
cake.  It  was  while  the  jugs  had  honey  in  them, 
but  not  yet  closed,  that  the  boys  found  them. 
When  it  is  about  half  full  she  places  an  egg  on  the 
cake.  She  next  makes  a  neat  cover  to  the  top  of 
the  jug.  Now  the  little  grub  that  is  to  hatch  out 
will  find  a  fine  store  of  delicious  food  to  live  and 
grow  on. 

The  bee  next  builds  another  cell,  just  like  this 
first  one,  right  beside  it  and  cemented  solidly  to  it. 
This  is  also  furnished  with  honey  cake  and  an  egg 
puib  on  top  and  the  cell  sealed  up  with  cement. 
She  keeps  making  these  little  cells  until  there  is  a 
group  of  from  six  to  ten,  each  with  its  honey  cake 
and  an  egg. 

Now  to  make  things  more  safe  for  the  little 
family,  the  bee  mother  builds  a  thick  covering  of 
cement  over  the  whole  group  of  cells.  When 
finished,  the  whole  house  is  about  the  size  of  half 
an  orange.  The  thick,  hard  round  cement  roof 
keeps  away  the  rain,  frost  and  snow.  It  protects 


HOW   THE    TEACHER   WAS   TAUGHT  25 

them  from  wasps  and  other  insects  that  go  hunting 
around  for  fat  grubs.  It  keeps  out  birds  that  are 
always  on  the  lookout  for  just  that  kind  of  food. 
It  may  be  a  long  time  before  the  family  can  come 
forth,  therefore,  especial  care  must  be  taken  to 
protect  it. 

When  they  are  hatched  out,  the  tiny  grubs 
quickly  grow  to  be  big  ones.  Then  they  spin  soft 
linings  for  their  little  rooms  and  go  to  sleep  to 
await  the  time  when  they  will  wake  up  full  grown 
bees,  with  legs,  wings,  eyes,  jaws,  and  all  the  parts 
of  a  beautiful  flying  insect,  instead  of  fat  white 
grubs.  This  family  is  made  up  of  both  brothers 
and  sisters.  They  must  next  work  their  way  out 
of  their  little  cells.  Then  they  are  free  to  begin 
new  bee  life. 

Soon  new  mothers  start  in  as  masons,  first 
selecting  a  stone  for  a  foundation,  and  building 
the  house  and  filling  the  rooms  with  food  and  eggs 
as  their  mothers  did. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  mason-bees  found  in 
different  countries.  That  is,  bees  which  make 
their  houses  with  the  use  of  cement  or  mortar 
which  they  make  themselves.  But  they  do  not  all 
build  their  houses  like  the  one  which  Fabre  and  his 
pupils  found.  Each  kind  has  its  style  of  house, 
and  its  own  choice  of  the  kind  of  place  to  build  it  in. 

In  this  country  one  kind  makes  little  cells  on  the 
underside  of  a  flat  stone.  There  are  some  kinds 
that  do  not  build  their  nests  wholly  out  of  mortar, 
but  use  holes  in  fences,  buildings,  trees  or  stone 


26  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

walls.  These  holes  they  clean  out  and  use  their 
own  mortar  with  which  to  finish  them.  One  kind 
makes  tiny  vases  out  of  its  cement  which  it  fastens 
to  stems  of  plants.  A  honey  cake  and  an  egg  is 
placed  in  each  vase.  Because  it  makes  these 
vases,  it  is  called  a  potter-bee. 

Each  of  these  sorts  of  bees,  has  wonderfully 
interesting  ways  of  doing  things.  There  are  great 
numbers  of  the  different  kinds.  So  many,  that 
people  have  found  out  the  ways  of  but  a  few  of 
them.  There  are  sure  to  be  some  kinds  living  about 
every  home.  Many  are  so  small  and  go  about 
their  work  so  quietly  and  quickly,  that  we  never 
see  them.  If  any  one  would  watch  and  study 
some  of  them  as  carefully  as  Fabre  did  his  mason- 
bee,  he  could  certainly  tell  wonderfully  interesting 
stories  about  them. 


A  CATERPILLAR  REGIMENT 

Not  long  since,  Elizabeth  received  a  letter,  part 
of  which  is  given  here.  The  things  spoken  of  in 
the  letter  are  shown  in  the  pictures. 

"  While  searching  among  the  trees  and  bushes 
with  Alice,  I  found  on  a  twig  of  a  white  oak  tree  a 
small  thickened  band  wrapped  about  the  twig. 
On  looking  at  it  very  carefully  you  can  see  that 
the  band  has  an  outside  layer  which  you  can  see 
through  and  that  it  covers  a  great  number  of  little 
dots.  These  dots  are  little  eggs  standing  on  end 
and  packed  closely  together.  There  are  something 
like  four  hundred  of  them  or  even  more.  Now 
what  kind  of  an  animal  can  lay  four  or  five  hundred 
eggs  in  one  nest?  Well,  it  is  the  moth  of  the  tent- 
caterpillar.  All  the  kinds  of  moths  and  butterflies 
lay  some  kind  of  eggs  from  which  are  hatched 
some  kind  of  caterpillar. 

"I  am  sending  you  a  twig  on  which  is  a  band  of 
eggs  of  the  tent-caterpillar.  I  cut  it  off  an  oak 
tree  near  here. 

"If  you  tie  the  twig,  which  has  the  band  on  it, 
tightly  to  one  of  the  small  branches  of  a  tree  near 
your  home  where  you  can  watch  it,  you  can  see 
what  happens  when  the  eggs  hatch.  You  can  use 
an  oak,  an  apple,  a  cherry,  a  prune  or  an  apricot 
tree.  In  tying  the  twig  on  be  sure  to  tie  it  firmly 

27 


28  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

and  use  fine  thread.  If  a  coarse  string  is  used  it 
might  be  hard  for  the  tiny  caterpillar  to  get  over 
when  it  first  hatches  out. 

"At  this  time  of  year  (spring)  if  you  look 
carefully  among  your  oak  trees  and  fruit  trees  you 
may  find  a  nest  of  eggs  of  the  tent-caterpillar  which 
you  can  watch  on  its  own  tree,  or  if  it  is  too  far 
away,  you  can  cut  off  the  nest  twig  and  tie  it  to  a 
right  kind  of  tree  near  your  home.  Most  people 
do  not  like  these  tent-caterpillars  on  their  trees  but 
just  one  nest  won't  matter  much.  And  if  we  can 
learn  something  about  the  way  those  little  animals 
live  and  manage  to  take  care  of  themselves,  I  think 
it  will  do  us  some  good." 

STORY  OF  THE  TENT-CATERPILLAR 

The  tent-caterpillar  moth  lays  her  eggs  in  a  band 
around  the  oak  twig  in  the  summer  time.  She 
carefully  covers  the  eggs  with  a  substance  which 
when  dry  gets  hard  and  will  turn  the  water  off,  so 
that  the  eggs  are  kept  dry  through  the  winter. 

There  they  stay  through  the  fall  and  winter 
tucked  away  in  their  well  made  nest.  About  the 
time  the  oak  leaf  buds  begin  to  open  in  the  spring 
into  leaves,  the  little  tent-caterpillar  eggs  hatch. 
They  are  very  tiny  little  caterpillars  at  first  but 
Oh,  there  are  so  many  of  them.  Small  as  they 
are,  they  seem  to  know  just  what  to  do  to  take  care 
of  themselves  in  the  big  world  into  which  they  have 
just  come. 


A    CATERPILLAR   REGIMENT 


29 


30  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

They  are  sociable  little  people  right  from  the 
start.  They  stay  together  in  a  great  company, 
just  as  soldiers  do,  so  we  might  call  it  a  regiment. 
They  all  dress  alike  in  a  uniform  and  that  is  like 
soldiers.  Down  the  limb  they  march  until  they 
find  a  corner  which  seems  to  them  good  enough 
in  which  to  build  their  tent.  Such  a  corner  is 
where  one  limb  of  the  tree  branches  off  from 
another.  There  they  busily  work  at  weaving  a 
web  that  looks  like  some  kind  of  a  spider's  web. 
They  use  it  for  a  house  or  tent.  This  is  the 
reason  they  are  called  tent-caterpillars.  The  cloth 
of  the  tent  is  woven  from  a  fine  silken  thread 
which  they  spin  from  their  bodies  as  do  spiders. 
They  spin  this  thread  wherever  they  go. 

When  they  first  make  their  tent  it  is  rather 
small,  but  big  enough  for  the  tiny  little  people  to 
get  into.  They  crowd  in  at  nights  and  on  cloudy 
days.  There  they  keep  warm  and  are  sheltered 
from  wind  and  rain  and  any  insect  enemies  which 
may  be  after  them.  When  the  sun  comes  out 
warm,  the  little  fellows  crawl  out  and  go  off  to  the 
ends  of  the  twigs  or  branches  of  the  tree  for  the 
green  leaves  which  are  their  food.  They  eat 
away  on  the  leaves  until  they  are  unable  to  eat 
any  more,  then  they  crawl  back  to  the  tent  to  rest 
and  sleep  in  safety. 

How  do  they  find  their  way  back  to  their  tent? 
Well,  I  am  not  sure,  but  it  looks  as  if  they  had  a 
good  way  since  they  spin  a  thread  wherever  they 
go.  They  could  follow  that  line  of  thread  back. 


A   CATERPILLAR   REGIMENT  31 

Then  they  go  over  the  way  so  often  that  there  gets 
to-  be  a  good  silken  trail  on  every  limb  back  to  the 
tent. 

That  little  thread  is  sometimes  of  great  use  to 
them.  If  ever  you  find  one  of  these  caterpillars 
swinging  at  the  end  of  its  rope  you  can  see  how  it 
uses  its  mouth  and  feet  to  gather  up  the  rope  as 
it  climbs  back  to  its  place  on  the  limb. 

As  each  little  caterpillar  goes  out  every  nice  day 
and  feeds  on  the  leaves  it  grows  very  fast  and  soon 
becomes  a  big  caterpillar,  more  than  an  inch  long. 
The  whole  company  keep  making  the  tent  bigger 
and  bigger  to  suit  their  larger  size.  It  might  get 
to  be  as  much  as  two  feet  across. 

But  after  some  time  when  they  have  eaten  a  lot 
and  grown  all  they  are  going  to,  they  do  not  go 
back  to  the  tent.  Each  one  then  goes  off  by 
itself.  It  seeks  a  good  place  to  hide  in.  Then  it 
spins  a  silken  bed  for  itself.  This  is  fastened  by 
silk  threads  to  the  sticks  or  leaves  where  it  is 
hiding.  The  silken  bed  is  called  a  cocoon.  Inside 
of  it  the  caterpillar  slowly  changes  into  a  moth. 
This  takes  some  weeks,  perhaps  as  much  as  three. 
The  moth  comes  out  of  the  silken  cocoon  and  at 
first  it  is  very  quiet,  but  soon  it  is  strong  enough  to 
fly.  It  hides  away  in  the  day  time  and  flies  about 
at  night.  One  may  fly  into  your  room  through  the 
window  some  time  when  the  light  is  shining. 

Many  other  moths  and  other  insects  besides  this 
one  may  come  in  through  the  window  at  night 
drawn  by  the  light. 


32  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

After  some  time,  when  it  is  ready  for  egg  laying, 
it  seeks  a  tree  that  will  give  the  right  kind  of 
leaves  .for  food  for  tent-caterpillars.  It  likes  the 
white  oak  best,  but  some  others  will  do.  It  lays  a 
band  of  eggs  around  a  small  twig  and  covers  it  over 
with  something  that  is  hard  when  it  gets  dry  and 
protects  the  eggs  through  the  winter.  This  band 
is  like  the  one  which  was  sent  to  Elizabeth.  It 
stays  on  the  tree  till  next  spring  and  the  story 
begins  again  with  the  tiny  caterpillars  marching 
down  to  find  a  good  place  in  which  to  make  a  tent. 

If  you  find  any  eggs  watch  them  and  you  will 
see  that  they  do  just  what  this  story  tells  you. 

There  are  several  kinds  of  tent-caterpillars. 
But  they  act  much  in  the  same  way.  Some  make 
their  tents  somewhat  different  from  the  others,  or 
they  may  have  different  likes  and  dislikes  about 
their  food  leaves.  One  likes  oak  leaves  the  best, 
whilst  others  seem  to  prefer  apple  or  cherry  leaves. 

There  is  one  thing  sure,  if  the  mother  moth 
puts  her  eggs  on  a  certain  tree  the  caterpillars  must 
eat  just  that  kind  of  leaves  or  go  without.  They 
have  learned  the  lesson  of  "Eat  what  is  set  before 
you  and  ask  no  questions."  Mother  seems  to 
know  just  what  the  children  need  and  she  does  her 
best  to  manage  that  they  get  it.  But  suppose  she 
should  make  a  mistake  and  lay  the  eggs  on  a 
wrong  tree,  a  tree  tliat  had  leaves  which  the  little 
children  could  not  eat.  That  would  be  terrible. 
There  would  be  about  four  hundred  little  cater- 
pillar babies  that  would  starve  to  death.  But  the 


A   CATERPILLAR   REGIMENT  33 

mother  moth  seems  to  be  very  careful.  I  have  not 
found  any  eggs  on  the  wrong  tree.  I  think  it  is 
wonderful  that  such  little  people  with  such  small 
heads  know  how  to  take  care  of  themselves  in 
such  clever  ways. 


MUSHROOMS 

When  winter  has  gone  away  the  ground  begins 
to  get  warmer.  The  soft  spring  rains  come. 
The  warmth  and  rain  wake  up  the  seeds  and  the 
roots  of  the  plants  and  they  all  start  to  grow. 

Soon  the  hills  and  fields  are  green.  In  the  forest 
the  buds  of  the  trees  are  opening  and  will  soon 
cover  the  branches  with  fine  green  leaves.  There 
is  plenty  of  food  for  the  birds  and  insects  and  so 
they  come  forth  to  begin  their  lively  and  joyful 
summer  life. 

One  spring  morning,  after  showers  of  rain,  we 
took  a  walk  through  the  fields  and  woods.  On 
every  side  there  seemed  to  have  just  popped 
out  of  the  moist  ground  many  kinds  of  plants  that 
are  not  green.  They  are  called  mushrooms. 
Because  they  grow  so  quickly,  it  is  sometimes  said 
that  they  "  spring  up  in  a  night."  We  found  that 
some  of  them  do  seem  to  grow  up  in  a  night,  but 
not  all  of  them  spring  up  so  quickly.  Some  kinds 
grow  so  slowly  that  it  may  be  a  long  time,  even 
months,  before  they  reach  their  full  size. 

There  were  many  different  shapes.  Some  wrere 
like  umbrellas;  some  were  round  balls  and  others 
shaped  like  stars.  Some  did  not  grow  from  the 
ground  but  from  the  sides  of  logs  or  trees.  Many 
of  these  were  like  shelves  growing  out  from  the  log. 

34 


MUSHROOMS 


35 


They  were  of  many  different  colors  but  only  a  very 
few  were  green  and  their  green  was  not  like  the 
green  of  grass  or  of  the  leaves  of  trees. 

The  umbrella  shaped  ones  were  the  most  numer- 


y  Jfa« 


FIG.  10. — The  common  edible  mushroom.     The  ground  is  shown  as 
if  cut  away  to  show  how  the  mycelium  grows  in  it. 

ous.     These  were  not  all  alike,  some  being  large 
and  some  very  small. 

We  were  told  that  many  kinds  are  good  to  eat 
but  that  some  kinds  are  very  poisonous.  Now 
since  some  that  are  poisonous  look  like  those  that 
are  good  to  eat  it  is  dangerous  to  make  a  choice 
unless  you  know  them  very  well.  As  we  did  not 


36  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

know  how  to  tell  a  good  mushroom  we  asked  a  man 
who  has  studied  mushrooms  and  knows,  to  tell  us 
about  them.  He  showed  us  some  of  the  good 
kinds  and  we  gathered  them  to  take  home  and  look 
at  more  carefully. 

We  first  examined  some  of  the  umbrella  kind. 
One  of  the  first  things  we  learned,  and  this  surprised 
us,  was  that  this  umbrella  part  which  grows  up  out 
of  the  ground  so  quickly  is  by  no  means  all  of  the 
plant.  There  is  a  part  that  grows  in  the  ground. 
By  digging  the  earth  away  very  carefully  from  the 
bottom  of  the  umbrella  stalk  we  found  it  fastened 
to  a  delicate  white  stuff  which  looks  like  cotton. 
This  runs  from  the  umbrella  stalk  into  the  ground 
like  roots  but  not  strong  like  the  roots  of  other 
plants.  These  threads  are  so  fine  and  delicate 
that  it  is  hard  to  find  them  in  the  ground  except 
at  the  very  bottom  of  the  umbrella  stalk.  But 
people  who  have  studied  very  carefully  how  mush- 
rooms grow,  tell  us  that  these  fine  cotton-like 
threads  grow  a  long  way  in  the  ground  or  log  on 
which  the  mushroom  is  growing.  This  is  the 
main  part  of  the  plant.  It  is  called  the  mycelium. 
It  lives  and  grows  sometimes  for  more  than  a  year 
before  the  umbrella  part  springs  up  out  of  the 
ground  and  its  purpose  is  to  gather  food  for  the 
mushroom.  The  white  cotton-like  mycelium  gath- 
ers food  from  rotting  leaves,  wood  or  grass  roots 
that  -may  be  in  the  ground.  If  the  mushroom 
grows  on  a  log,  the  mycelium  grows  in  the  rotting 
part  of  the  log  to  get  its  food. 


MUSHROOMS  37 

When  the  mycelium  has  gathered  enough  food 
to  nourish  the  growth  above  the  ground,  a  part 
will  grow  up  from  the  surface  of  the  earth  or  out 
from  the  side  of  a  log  in  the  form  of  a  little 
umbrella.  On  the  under  side  of  the  umbrella  part 
are  the  tiny  things  that  act  as  seeds  of  the  mush- 
room. They  are  called  spores  and  are  so  small  that 
they  seem  like  very  fine  dust  when  touched.  The 
top  of  the  umbrella  is  called  the  cap  and  the  handle, 
the  stem.  Most  of  the  umbrella  kinds  that  we 
gathered  had  little  short  thin  curtains  on  their 
under  side  which  run  from  the  stem  out  to  the  edge 
of  the  umbrella.  These  little  curtains  are  called 
the  " gills"  of  the  mushroom.  The  fine  dust%of 
spores  is  formed  on  these  gills. 

The  spores,  being  so  small,  are  carried  away  by 
the  wind  before  we  can  see  them  properly,  so  we 
took  some  of  the  umbrella  shaped  mushrooms  home 
and  cut  off  the  stem  of  one  close  up  to  the  umbrella 
top  and  laid  it  carefully,  with  the  underside  down, 
on  a  sheet  of  paper.  We  then  covered  the  mush- 
room top  with  a  glass  tumbler  to  keep  the  air  from 
blowing  the  spores  away.  After  some  hours  the 
spores  had  fallen  down  from  the  gills  just  right  to 
make  a  beautiful  picture  of  the  gills  on  the  paper. 
This  is  called  a  spore  print. 

A  single  spore  is  so  small  that  we  cannot  see  it 
by  itself.  But  when  a  lot  are  gathered  together  they 
look  like  colored  dust.  If  you  look  at  them  with  a 
microscope,  they  are  seen  to  be  little  round  or  oval 
things. 


38 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


If  one  of  them  gets  in  the  right  place  it  will  grow 
into  a  tiny  white  thread.  New  threads  will  branch 
out  from  this  and  these  threads  will  branch  again 
and  again  until  it  makes  the  cotton-like  mycelium. 
In  this  way  the  fine  threads  of  the  mycelium  grow 
through  the  rotting  log  or  decaying  matter  in  the 
ground  gathering  food  for  the  quick  growth  of  the 


FIG.  11. — The  mushroom  called  boletus. 

umbrella.  Thus  the  spore  grows  into  the  myce- 
lium and  the  mycelium  makes  the  umbrella  above 
the  ground,  and  the  umbrella  makes  the  spores  and 
the  spores  wafted  away  by  the  wind  to  a  new  place 
start  new  mycelium  which  is  ready  to  go  on  with 
the  program  once  more. 

One  kind  of  umbrella  shaped  mushroom  has  on 
its  underside,  instead  of  little  curtains,  a  number 


MUSHROOMS 


39 


of  little  holes  and  the  spores  come  out  of  these  tiny 
holes.  We  made  a  spore  print  of  this  one  also. 
The  name  of  this  one  is  the  boletus. 

The  umbrella  shaped  mushrooms  are  not  the 
only  ones  which  bear  spores.  Every  kind  of 
mushroom  has  spores.  The  part  that  grows  up 


FIG.  12. — The  morel. 

out  of  the  ground  or  from  the  side  of  a  log  or  trunk 
of  a  tree  is  the  part  that  forms  the  spores.  It  is 
sent  out  on  purpose  to  make  the  spores  which  are 
generally  found  somewhere  on  the  surface  of  the 
mushroom. 

The  mushroom  called  the  morel,  instead  of  an 
umbrella  top  has  a  pointed  top.  Its  surface  is 
wrinkly  and  the  spores  are  on  this  surface. 


40 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


The  coral  mushroom  has  a  branched  top  looking 
like  some  kinds  of  corals.  The  spores  are  on  the 
surface  of  the  branches. 

The  puff-balls  are  mushrooms  which  have  in  the 
place  of  the  stalk  and  umbrella  top,  a  ball  shaped 


FIG.  13. — Coral  mushroom. 

part.  The  spores  are  formed  inside  of  the  ball. 
When  they  are  ripe  the  ball  is  easily  broken.  If 
you  step  on  a  ripe  puff-ball  a  little  cloud  comes  out 
with  a  puff.  This  is  really  a  little  cloud  of  spores. 
We  found  one  very  curious  kind  of  mushroom 
called  the  geaster,  or  earth  star.  It  is  really  a 


MUSHEOOMS  41 

kind  of  puff-ball  with  a  star  shaped  collar  around 
its  base.  When  the  geaster  is  wet  the  rays  of  the 
star  open  and  stretch  out  wide.  As  it  drys  up  the 
rays  rise  up  and  close  tightly  around  the  ball 
in  the  center.  If  you  put  the  dry  one  in  a  saucer 


FIG.  14.— Puff-balls. 

of  water  the  rays  will  again  open  and  stretch  out 
right  before  your  eyes. 

Thus  every  kind  of  mushroom  has  a  place  on  it 
where  the  tiny  spores  are  formed  in  very  great 
numbers.  Why  are  the  spores  so  very  small  and 
why  are  so  very  many  made?  Well,  as  nobody 
takes  care  to  plant  all  these  different  kinds  of 
mushrooms,  each  mushroom  must  see  to  that  for 
itself.  The  spores  are  made  very  small  so  that, 


42  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

like  very  finQ  dust,  the  wind  can  carry  them 
away  long  distances.  There  are  such  large  num- 
bers of  them  formed  so  that  some  of  them  can  be 
sure  to  get  planted  in  just  the  right  kind  of  a  place 
to  grow. 

Every  kind  of  mushroom  needs  a  certain  kind  of 
place  where  it  can  grow  best.  If  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  the  spores  of  a  mushroom  are  scat- 


FIG.  15. — The  geaster  opened  when  moist.     The  star  shaped  collar 
closes  on  the  ball  when  dry. 


tered  far  and  wide  some  will  be  sure  to  fall  in  the 
right  places  for  that  kind  of  a  mushroom.  In  that 
way  each  kind  keeps  itself  alive  year  after  year. 
If  there  is  a  good  place  over  in  another  woods  for  a 
certain  kind  of  mushroom  the  wind  will  very 
likely  carry  some  of  its  spores  over  there  and  a  new 
lot  will  spring  up. 

Just  a  few  kinds  of  mushrooms  are  talked  about 
in  this  story  but  there  are  hundreds  of  others. 


MUSHROOMS  43 

You  will  find  it  great  fun  to  look  for  the  different 
kinds  and  find  out  the  places  each  one  likes  best. 
Sometimes  the  umbrella  shaped  mushrooms  are 
called  toadstools.  I  suppose  that  name  was  given 
them  long  ago  when  some  people  thought  that 
the  toads  used  them  for  stools.  I  think  they  would 
make  better  umbrellas  than  stools.  Don't  you? 


FIG.  16. — A  fairy  ring. 

Sometimes  one  kind  of  mushroom  is  found 
growing  in  the  lawns  or  fields  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  beautiful  rings.  People  call  them  fairy 
rings.  Long  ago  it  was  thought  that  the  fairies 
made  them  come  up  in  rings  so  that  at  midnight 
they  could  come  and  dance  in  the  center  of  the 
ring.  It  does  look  mysterious  to  see  a  lot  of 
mushrooms  standing  up  in  the  grass  in  the  form  of 
a  ring  like  a  lot  of  children  playing  a  game. 

One  explanation  of  how  they  come  to  grow  in  a 
ring  is  this. 


44  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

The  sort  of  mushrooms  shown  in  the  picture 
is  not  the  only  one  that  grows  in  a  ring.  Why 
mushrooms  should  come  up  in  this  way  is  such  an 
interesting  question  that  our  Government's  Agri- 
cultural Department  set  some  of  its  scientific  men 
to  study  it  at  one  of  its  experiment  stations.  The 
explanation  given  is  that  some  spores  of  the 
mushroom  drop  in  a  good  place  hi  the  lawn  or 
field.  They  start  the  mycelium  to  growing  in  the 
ground.  From  this  spot  as  the  mycelium  grows  it 
finds  good  fresh  ground  in  front.  What  is  behind 
is  not  so  good  because  the  mycelium  has  just  used 
it.  As  it  grows  away  from  the  starting  point  it 
soon  becomes  a  circle.  This  growth  may  go  on  for 
years  before  it  bears  any  mushrooms  but  when 
they  do  come  up  of  course  they  are  in  a  ring. 
These  rings  where  the  mycelium  is  growing  is  often 
shown  in  the  lawns  long  before  any  mushrooms 
come  up.  They  make  rings  of  brighter  colored 
grass  under  which  the  mycelium  is  growing. 
There  are  a  number  of  such  rings  in  the  lawns  of 
the  University  Campus. 

The  rings  can  only  form  where  the  ground  is  not 
disturbed  for  a  long  time  such  as  in  lawns,  per- 
manent pastures  or  woods.  In  some  places  the 
rings  are  so  large  that  it  is  thought  it  has  taken 
hundreds  of  years  for  them  to  grow  this  way. 
I  am  sure  if  I  had  a  fairy  ring  in  my  lawn  or 
anywhere  I  would  not  let  any  one  destroy  it. 

I  have  said  that  very  many  kinds  of  mushrooms 
are  good  to  eat.  I  must  now  tell  you  that  some 


MUSHROOMS  45 

are  very  poisonous.  You  should  never  try  to  eat 
any  kind  of  mushroom  without  knowing  for  certain 
that  it  is  one  of  the  good  kind.  It  is  best  to  learn 
this  from  some  grown  *  up  person  who  knows 
mushrooms  well.  Some  of  the  most  dangerous 
ones  look  so  much  like  some  of  the  good  ones  that 
any  one  not  knowing  them  well  could  easily  be 
mistaken.  Some  people  say  that  you  can  tell  a 
poisonous  kind  by  boiling  the  mushroom  with  a 
silver  coin.  They  say  that  if  the  silver  turns 
black,  it  is  a  poisonous  mushroom.  This  is  a 
mistake  so  don't  trust  it.  One  of  the  most  common 
of  the  good  kinds  comes  up  in  the  pasture  fields. 
Many  people  know  this  kind  well  and  go  out  in  the 
spring  after  warm  rains  to  hunt  for  it  in  the  fields. 
This  is  the  kind  that  is  planted  for  the  market. 
Perhaps  some  one  near  you  raises  this  mushroom. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  visit  the  place  and  see 
how  the  mushroom  gardner  makes  them  grow.  He 
uses  a  cellar  or  cave  where  it  is  cool  and  damp.  He 
gets  very  rich  earth  and  starts  the  mushrooms  by 
planting  in  it  a  block  of  dirt  which  has  the  myce- 
lium in  it.  This  block  of  dirt  with  the  mycelium 
in  it  is  called  spawn.  When  it  is  planted  in  the 
moist  rich  earth,  the  mycelium  grows  out  from  the 
block  of  dirt.  The  mycelium  spreads  all  through 
the  rest  of  the  rich  earth  the  same  as  it  does  in  the 
ground  in  the  fields  and  when  it  gathers  enough 
food  it  puts  up  the  umbrella  shaped  part  in  large 
numbers.  These  are  gathered  to  sell  for  food. 


SOME  TOAD  STORIES 

A  HOMELY  FRIEND 

The  boy  was  helping  Aunt  Hannah  prepare  her 
flower  beds.  They  were  both  down  on  their  knees 
planting  seeds,  and  crumpling  up  the  clods  with 
their  hands,  to  cover  the  seeds  with  fine  soil.  Aunt 
Hannah  got  hold  of  a  clod  that  was  soft  but  would 


FIG.   17. — A  common  California  toad. 

not  crumble  as  she  rolled  it  in  her  hand.  "What 
a  funny  clod,"  she  said,  "Oh  it's  a  toad'7  and  she 
let  it  drop  in  a  hurry.  Of  course  the  boy  laughed, 
and  Aunt  Hannah,  after  making  a  wry  face 
and  saying  an  "Ugh"  or  two,  laughed  too.  The 
poor  toad  wasn't  hurt  very  much  and  hopped  under 

46 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  47 

a  plant  and  snuggled  down  among  the  clods.  As 
he  looked  just  like  a  clod  again,  he  thought  he 
had  hidden  himself  once  more. 

Aunt  Hannah  did  not  try  to  drive  the  old  toad 
away.  She  was  very  glad  to  have  it  stay,  even  if 
it  were  so  ugly  that  she  did  not  like  to  touch  it. 
For  the  good  old  toad  was  a  great  help  to  her 
flower  beds.  She  had  had  great  trouble  with  the 
insects  and  slugs  eating  her  plants  as  soon  as  they 
came  up.  But  after  the  toad  came  it  caught 
hundreds  of  the  insects  and  slugs  and  this  gave  the 
plants  a  chance  to  grow.  Indeed  she  thought 
so  much  of  it,  that  you  could  hardly  buy  it  from 
her.  But  you  might  think,  why  is  such  a  good 
fellow  so  very  ugly?  Well  nowj  there  is  a  very 
good  reason  for  the  toad's  being  ugly. 

You  see  it  is  such  a  harmless  animal,  it  couldn't 
take  care  of  itself  by  fighting  as  some  animals  do. 
It  has  no  sharp  teeth  to  bite  with  nor  sharp  claws 
to  scratch  with.  So  almost  any  animal  can  whip 
it  in  a  fight.  Then  it  can  not  run  fast  so  as  to  get 
away  from  trouble.  But  if  you  look  at  it  carefully 
you  see  its  body  is  dark  mud-color,  with  dirty 
looking  blotches,  and  the  skin  is  rough  with  warts. 
This  makes  it  look  like  a  lump  of  dirt.  Thus, 
when  it  sits  low  down  and  very  still  among 
clods  or  on  rough  ground,  you  would  have  to  look 
closely  or  you  would  not  see  it  at  all.  When 
hawks,  cats,  dogs  and  other  animals  are  hunting 
for  food  they  are  likely  to  miss  seeing  the 
toad.  Then  it  hardly  ever  comes  out  of  its  hiding 


48  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

place  till  it  begins  to  get  dark,  and  that  makes  it 
still  harder  to  be  seen.  A  very  curious  thing 
further  helps  it  hide  itself.  It  has  a  strange 
way  of  changing  its  color  a  little,  so  that  it  may  get 
a  lighter  grey  on  light  colored  ground  or  a  darker 
brown  on  darker  ground.  Then  there  is  another 
thing  that  helps  guard  it  against  some  of  its  enemies. 
When  an  animal  touches  it,  a  liquid  comes  out  of 
its  skin  that  is  very  bad  to  taste  and  it  is  somewhat 
poisonous,  so  that  if  a  dog  or  other  animal  picks 
it  up  with  its  mouth,  it  is  glad  to  drop  it  and  not 
to  try  it  again.  So  you  se6  this  quiet,  helpless, 
ugly,  slow  toad  is  taken  care  of  by  nature. 

But  it  is  not  altogether  ugly  for  it  has  beautiful 
eyes.  They  are  bright  yellow  and  gleam  from  his 
homely  head. 

While  the  good  old  toad  cannot  harm  children 
and  animals,  even  if  they  are  no  bigger  than  itself, 
it  is  a  hobgoblin  to  insects,  worms  and  slugs. 
Here  is  where  its  ugliness  helps  it  again.  As  it 
looks  like  an  unsightly  clod,  the  bugs  and  flies 
crawl  and  fly  close  to  it  thinking  there  is  nothing 
around,  but  clods.  But  they  are  greatly  deceived 
when  one  of  the  clods  turns  out  to  be  alive  and 
snaps  up  the  poor  insect  as  quick  as  lightning. 

The  toad  is  a  slow  sleepy  fellow,  but  there  is  one 
part  of  it  that  is  quick  as  a  flash.  That  is  its 
tongue. 

The  children  caught  an  old  toad  and  put  it  in  a 
box.  They  caught  some  flies  and  caterpillars  and 
slugs  and  put  them  in  the  box  with  the  toad. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  49 

Then  they  put  a  sheet  of  glass  over  the  box  to  keep 
the  flies  in,  and  watched  what  would  happen. 
A  slug  was  crawling  along  the  side  of  the  box  and, 
quick  as  a  wink  it  was  gone.  No  one  saw  how  it 
went  away.  They  watched  more  closely.  This 
time  Bess  said  she  saw  the  toad's  mouth  fly  open. 
Tom  said  he  saw  a  pink  flash  and  a  fly  disappeared. 
Well,  then  they  watched  still  more  closely  and 
found  that  what  happened  was  this.  When  a 
fly  or  a  caterpillar  moved  near  the  toad  its  big 
mouth  flew  open  and  a  long  pink  tongue  shot  out, 
caught  the  insect  and  shot  back  again  and  the 
mouth  snapped  shut.  It  was  all  so  quickly  done 
you  could  not  see  it  if  you  did  not  look  very 
sharp. 

Then  I  took  up  the  toad  and  opened  its  mouth 
and  there  at  the  front  part  of  the  bottom  of  the 
mouth  was  the  tongue  drawn  up  in  a  little  lump. 
When  pulled  out,  it  was  long  and  slender  and 
covered  over  with  a  sticky  stuff.  To  catch  a  fly, 
the  toad  would  open  wide  its  big  mouth  and  throw 
out  this  tongue,  like  a  long  ribbon,  against  the  fly 
and  the  sticky  stuff  would  hold  the  fly  fast,  and 
the  toad  would  jerk  it  back  into  its  mouth  which 
closed  with  a  snap .  What  a  fine  fly-trap !  Though 
its  body  is  like  a  clod  that  is  not  easily  seen,  it  has 
a  good  bright  eye,  a  big  mouth  and  a  long  sticky 
tongue,  that  is  as  quick  as  lightning.  Strange  to 
say,  the  toad  does  not  seem  to  see  an  insect  until 
the  insect  moves.  If  the  fly  keeps  perfectly  still 
the  toad  does  not  try  to  catch  it,  but  if  the  fly 


50  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

9 

makes  the  slightest  move  then  it  is  swept  off  in  a 
wink. 

There  is  another  pleasing  thing  about  a  toad. 
It  has  a  nice  little  song.  Not  a  coarse  and  rough 
one  like  the  croaking  of  some  kind  of  frogs.  Its 
song  is  like  a  very  soft  and  gentle  whistle. 

In  countries  where  the  winter  is  cold,  many 
plants  go  to  sleep  in  the  fall  until  spring.  Some 
animals  also  hide  away  for  the  winter  sleep. 
The  toad  is  one  of  them.  It  finds  some  hole  in  the 
ground,  or  digs  down  into  the  earth  and  in  its 
hiding-place,  sleeps  till  the  warm  spring  rains 
come.  Then  it  wakes  up  with  the  other  winter 
sleepers  and  then  you  can  hear  its  gentle  song. 
It,  like  every  body  else,  is  glad  when  winter  is  over 
and  spring  has  come.  This  song  is  one  of  the  early 
signs  that  plants,  insects,  flowers,  squirrels  and 
many  other  animals  are  waking  up  and  soon  the 
grass  and  flowers,  birds,  butterflies  and  bees  will 
all  be  busy  again. 

The  toad  is  generally  quiet  the  rest  of  the 
year.  But  you  can  make  it  sing  a  little  song  if 
you  stroke  it  gently  with  your  finger  in  just  the 
right  way. 

The  toad  is  a  great  friend  to  the  gardener, 
because  it  catches  such  great  numbers  of  insects, 
caterpillars,  slugs  and  worms.  People  who  under- 
stand this,  are  very  careful  that  no  harm  comes  to 
the  toads.  They  may  go  to  lots  of  trouble  to  get 
toads  for  their  gardens.  A  little  boy  friend  of 
mine,  learned  that  toads  are  fine  for  gardens. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  51 

He  thought  he  would  find  some  and  try  them,  and 
here  is  the  story  of  his  troubles. 

LITTLE  WILBUR  AND  His  TOAD  TROUBLES 

There  was  a  pond  near  little  Wilbur 's  school. 
At  noon  and  recess  the  children  would  often  play 
and  "splash"  along  the  edge  of  the  water.  In  the 
spring  hundreds  of  toads  came  to  the  pond  to 
lay  their  eggs.  When  the  eggs  were  laid,  the  toads 
would  come  out  of  the  water  and  start  for  their 
old  homes.  Some  went  this  way  and  some  went 
that.  Some  of  the  boys  who  did  not  understand 
toads  and  all  the  good  they  do,  would  run  after  the 
poor  things  with  sticks  and  stones  and  I  am  very 
sorry  to  say  killed  very  many  of  them,  before  they 
got  back  to  their  homes  in  the  different  gardens. 

I  suppose  that  that  year  the  insects  and  slugs  in 
many  gardens,  had  a  jolly  time  eating  up  the 
plants,  because  the  poor  toads,  that  had  homes  in 
those  gardens,  never  went  back. 

A  little  boy,  named  Wilbur,  had  read  in  his 
story  book,  how  in  France  the  gardeners  kept 
toads  in  their  gardens  to  keep  the  plant-bugs  and 
slugs  from  eating  every  thing.  Well,  when  he  saw 
the  toads  hopping  around  on  the  banks  of  the  pond 
he  thought  about  the  French  gardeners.  At  his 
home,  there  was  only  a  very  small  front  yard. 
His  mother  had  a  few  flower  beds  in  it.  He 
thought  "I'll  just  take  home  some  of  these  toads 
and  put  them  in  the  flower  beds  as  the  French 
gardeners  do  and  leave  them  there  to  take  care  of 


52  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

the  flowers."  He  did  not  tell  anybody  what  he  was 
going  to  do  for  fear  he  would  be  laughed  at.  So  he 
slipped  away  from  the  other  boys  with  whom  he 
was  going  to  school,  some  of  whom  were  stoning 
the  poor  things  and  caught  two  of  the  toads,  to 
take  them  home,  and  put  one  in  each  of  his  trousers' 
pockets.  To  keep  them  quiet  he  carefully  covered 
each  one  with  a  small  bunch  of  grass. 

Well  he  had  to  stay  in  the  school-room  with  those 
toads  in  his  pockets  all  the  remainder  of  the 
afternoon,  till  school  was  over  for  the  day. 

Now,  the  toads  behaved  very  well  and  kept  very 
quiet  down  in  the  bottom  of  the  pockets.  But 
Wilbur  could  not  keep  his  thoughts  off  those  toads. 
He  slipped  his  hand  carefully  down  into  one  of  the 
pockets  to  see  if  that  toad  was  still  there.  It  was 
there  sure  enough.  Just  to  see  if  it  were  all  right 
he  gently  smoothed  its  back  with  his  fingers. 
The  toad  must  have  liked  that  for  it  answered  by 
singing  its  soft  toad  song.  When  the  children 
heard  the  toad  song  of  course  they  all  looked  up. 
But  as  the  song  came  smothered  out  of  the  bottom 
of  the  pocket,  nobody  could  tell  just  where  it  came 
from.  Soon  they  all  got  busy  again. 

At  first  Wilbur  was  startled  to  have  the  toad 
sing  right  out  in  school.  He  was  afraid  something 
would  happen  to  him  if  it  were  found  out  that  the 
sound  came  from  him. 

So  he  kept  very  quiet  for  a  time.  But  he  could 
not  keep  from  trying  if  that  toad  would  sing  again 
if  he  stroked  it.  He  tried  it  and  sure  enough 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  53 

out  came  the  song  again.  This  time  every  one 
knew  that  there  was  certainly  a  toad  in  the 
school-room.  The  next  thing  was  to  find  out 
where  it  was. 

Now  as  Wilbur  wanted  to  get  those  toads  home 
he  should  have  kept  very  quiet  and  let  them  alone, 
but  he  just  couldn't  do  it.  He  wished  very  much 
to  find  out  if  the  other  toad  would  sing  if  he  stroked 
it.  So  when  he  thought  he  was  safe,  he  rubbed  the 
other  toad's  back  with  his  finger.  Sure  enough 
toad  number  two  sang  out  louder  than  the  other. 

When  Wilbur  thought  he  was  safe  he  didn't 
notice  that  Fanny  Jones  was  watching  him  and 
saw  him  reach  into  his  pocket  just  before  the  toad 
sang  out.  So  up  went  her  hand.  The  teacher 
asked  what  was  wanted.  She  went  right  up  to  the 
teacher  and  told  her  that  Wilbur  Jackson  had  a 
toad  in  his  pocket. 

The  teacher  thought  that  it  was  a  horrid  thing 
to  have  toads  in  one's  pocket  and  right  in  school 
too.  So  she  made  Wilbur  march  up  and  take  the 
toads  out  of  his  pockets.  She  gave  him  an  old 
crayon  box  to  put  them  in.  Well,  he  put  one  in 
and  while  he  tried  to  put  the  other  in,  the  first 
one  hopped  out  and  across  the  room.  Then  while 
he  went  after  that  one  the  second  one  hopped  out 
and  across  the  room  in  another  direction.  This 
made  the  teacher  jump  up  on  a  chair  and  most  of 
the  little  girls  get  up  on  top  of  the  desks.  The 
boys  of  course,  laughed  and  shouted  while  they 
had  a  chance. 


54  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

Wilbur  kept  after  one  toad  then  the  other.  I 
am  afraid  that  he  was  only  pretending  to  catch 
them.  At  any  rate  they  hopped  all  over  the  room 
and  it  was  quite  a  while  before  he  got  both  toads 
safely  in  the  box  and  the  racket  in  the  schoolroom 
quieted  down.  Then  the  teacher,  before  the  whole 
school  told  him  what  a  disgraceful  thing  it  was  to 
have  those  ugly  toads  in  his  pockets,  and  to  bring 
them  into  the  school. 

Then  she  sent  him  up  to  the  principal  of  the 
school,  to  have  him  punished.  As  he  went  sorrow- 
fully along  by  the  other  rooms  on  his  way  to  the 
principal's  room,  the  other  teachers  who  had  heard 
the  news,  looked  daggers  at  a  boy  who  would  have 
toads  in  his  pockets.  Ugh !  The  principal  switched 
him  and  sent  him  back  to  his  room  in  disgrace. 

Word  was  sent  home  to  his  mother,  how  he  had 
toads  in  his  pockets  in  school.  His  mother  felt  the 
disgrace  also.  She  had  him  take  off  his  little 
trousers  and  put  them  into  a  tub  of  soap  and  water, 
and  pound  them  with  a  stick. 

You  see  how  all  this  trouble  came  about.  It  was 
because  all  these  people  did  not  understand  about 
the  toad,  how  useful  and  innocent  it  is.  And  they 
misunderstood  a  little  boy,  who  was  kind  to  the 
innocent  animal  and  was  to  trying  do  good  in 
following  the  ways  of  the  wise  gardeners  of  France. 
When  I  saw  the  little  boy,  I  felt  very  sorry  for 
him  and  tried  to  help  him  get  some  other  toads  for 
his  garden.  But  I  felt  sorrier  for  people  who  do  not 
know  better  about  good  old  useful  toads. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  55 

AN  INNOCENT  PET 

Toads  make  very  innocent  pets.  All  you  have 
to  do  is  to  have  a  good  place  for  them  to  live  in  and 
they  will  take  care  of  themselves.  They  like  a 
dark  damp  place  to  hide  in,  in  the  daytime.  A 
hole  in  the  ground  under  some  bushes  or  a  board, 
under  which  they  can  crawl  suits  them.  I  had  one 
that  stayed  under  a  doorstep  in  the  daytime. 
When  it  began  to  be  twilight,  it  would  come  out  to 
look  for  its  food.  As  no  one  ever  hurt  it  and  it 
often  got  some  petting  it  became  quite  tame. 

Toads  live  many  years  if  no  hard  luck  comes  to 
them.  One  was  known  to  be  in  a  garden  for 
thirty-six  years. 

A  toad  is  very  fond  of  its  own  home.  If  it  is 
carried  away,  it  will  do  its  best  to  get  back  to  its 
old  home.  This  makes  it  hard  to  start  an  old 
toad  in  a  new  place.  If  you  find  a  toad  and  wish 
to  keep  it  in  your  garden,  you  may  be  disappointed. 
For  it  is  pretty  sure  to  try  to  get  away  to  find  its 
old  home.  You  will  have  to  keep  it  penned  up 
some  way  till  it  gets  to  feel  at  home  in  the  new 
place. 

The  better  way  would  be  to  get  some  little  young 
toads  that  are  just  leaving  the  pond  where  they 
were  hatched.  At  that  time  they  are  starting  out 
to  find  a  home  and  if  you  have  a  good  place,  they 
may  stay  in  it. 

A  still  better  way  to  do,  if  you  can,  is  to  get  some 
toad's  eggs  from  a  pond  in  the  spring  and  put  them 


56  INTEEESTING   NEIGHBORS 

in  a  glass  jar  or  dish  in  your  garden  and  let  them 
hatch  and  live  there  till  they  get  to  be  little  toads. 
Then  some  of  them  will  stay  in  your  garden. 

Then  too  you  will  have  the  fun  of  seeing  how 
toads  grow  from  eggs.  It  is  an  interesting  story. 
For  as  stupid  as  toads  look,  like  all  other  animals, 
they  must  know  enough  to  provide  for  their  young. 
This  is  a  story  of  how  the  children  tried  to  find 
out  about  the  way  toads  get  their  start  in  life. 

WHERE  THE  TOADS  CAME  FROM.    A  PICNIC 

We  learned  that  toad's  eggs  were  laid  in  water 
and  hatched  there.  So  off  we  started  to  find  a 
ditch  or  pond  where  some  eggs  might  be  found. 

It  was  a  beautiful  spring  morning.  Toads  lay 
their  eggs  in  the  spring-time.  We  took  along  a 
lunch  so  as  to  make  a  picnic  of  our  tramp.  We  had 
a  glass  jar  to  put  the  eggs  in,  if  we  found  any, 
and  a  little  net  on  the  end  of  a  stick,  like  a  butterfly 
net  with  which  to  catch  a  toad  or  two.  Tom 
carried  the  jar,  Bessie  the  net  and  I  carried  the 
lunch. 

Well,  we  had  a  long  tramp  and  saw  many  interest- 
ing things  that  there  is  not  time  now  to  tell  about. 
For  the  birds  and  insects  and  butterflies  were  start- 
ing up  their  spring  work.  By  and  by  we  got  to  the 
top  of  a  hill  and  away  down  at  the  bottom  through 
the  trees,  we  saw  a  pond.  It  was  still  a  good  way  off. 
It  wasn't  near  noon  yet,  but  I  could  see  that  the 
children  were  a  little  tired  and  began  hinting  about 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  57 

the  lunch.  Tom  was  afraid  the  cake  would  get 
smashed  if  we  climbed  over  any  more  fences. 
Bessie  thought  that  it  would  be  better  to  eat  the 
lunch  before  we  got  our  hands  on  the  toads  and 
eggs.  We  were  under  a  nice  tree  so  we  decided 
it  was  a  fine  place  for  a  lunch.  We  spread  it  out 
on  a  bit  of  gound  with  a  readymade  moss  table- 
cloth and  saved  the  cake  from  being  smashed 
while  climbing  a  fence. 

While  we  were  eating,  Tom  kept  looking  over  at 
the  pond  and  talking  about  the  toads  laying  eggs 
in  it.  He  was  puzzled  about  one  thing.  If  it  be 
true  that  toads  like  their  own  homes  and  will 
not  stay  anywhere  else  if  they  can  help  it,  how  is  it 
they  ever  go  to  ponds  so  far  away? 

Well,  that  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  things 
about  a  toad.  The  common  garden  toad's  eggs 
are  of  a  kind  that  can  only  hatch  in  water.  With 
some  other  kinds  of  toads  it  is  different.  But 
our  old  toad  must  find  water  in  which  to  lay  its 
eggs.  Without  water  they  would  all  dry  up  and 
never  hatch.  So  when  the  toads  in  spring  come 
out  of  their  hiding  places,  they  soon  get  ready 
to  lay  their  eggs. 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  find  a  pond.  Now 
how  can  a  toad  find  a  pond?  Some  people  have 
thought  toads  are  so  interesting  that  they  have 
watched  them  and  studied  them  year  after  year. 
They  tell  us  that  when  the  toad  wishes  to  lay  its 
eggs,  it  tries  to  go  back  to  the  same  pond  where  it, 
itself  was  hatched. 


58  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

You  see  when  the  little  toads  leave  the  pond 
where  they  started  life,  they  hop  and  crawl  away 
from  it  to  find  a  good  home  to  stay  in  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  They,  in  their  slow  way,  sometimes 
get  a  long  distance  from  the  pond  before  they  find 
a  home  to  suit  them.  Then  it  may  be  three  or  four 
years  before  they  are  old  enough  to  lay  eggs,  but 
when  that  time  comes  they  start  back  for  that 
same  pond. 

Bessie  said  that  she  couldn't  understand  how  a 
toad  could  find  its  way  back  to  the  pond  because 
it  was  so  low  down  on  the  ground  that  it  couldn't 
see  very  far.  There  were  so  many  sticks  and  stones 
and  logs  bigger  than  it  that  it  couldn't  look  over. 
Besides  it  has  no  path  back  to  the  pond.  I  think 
myself,  that  it  is  hard  to  understand  how  they  can 
do  it.  Tom  thought  that  perhaps  the  toad  climbed 
up  on  a  high  stump  and  looked  all  around. 
But  that  can't  be,  for  our  old  garden  toad  can 
not  climb  like  a  tree  toad.  Then  they  say  toads 
cannot  see  very  far,  any  way.  "  Well  then,"  Tom 
said,  "I  don't  believe  they  can  find  their  way 
back." 

We  decided  to  hurry  down  to  the  pond  and  see 
for  ourselves  if  any  toads  had  gone  back  there. 
As  we  got  up  I  must  say  that  there  were  only  a  few 
crumbs  left  from  the  lunch  for  the  birds  to  find. 
We  gathered  the  papers  up  and  rolled  them  into  a 
tight  wad  and  buried  it  in  a  hole  in  the  ground, 
so  that  our  lunch  place  would  look  as  clean  as  we 
found  it. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  59 

We  pushed  on  and  before  long  came  to  the  pond. 
Off  came  shoes  and  stockings,  of  course.  If  there 
were  no  toads  or  eggs  the  wading  would  well  pay 
for  the  long  walk.  But  soon  Bessie  cried  out 
"  Here's  a  toad. "  The  toad  was  a  big  one  and  was 
crouched  down  in  the  edge  of  the  water  and  before 
we  could  catch  it,  it  swam  out  into  water  too 
deep  for  us  and  dived  down  to  the  bottom.  We 
could  see  it  through  the  clear  water.  It  soon  came 
up  and  floated  and  swam  around  at  the  top  of  the 
water.  But  it  was  so  far  out  we  could  not  get  it. 

While  the  children  were  wading  around  Tom 
called  out,  "What's  this  stuff  sticking  to  these 
water  weeds?"  I  answered,  "It  looks  to  me  like 
toad's  eggs.  Bring  some  of  it  in."  Tom  grabbed 
at  the  queer  stuff  two  or  three  times  with  his  hands 
but  shouted  back,  "It  is  so  slippery  that  it  slides 
through  my  fingers."  I  told  him  to  be  careful 
with  it  and  come  and  get  the  glass  jar.  He  put  the 
glass  jar  under  some  of  it  and  let  it  slip  in  and  then 
brought  it  to  the  shore.  Sure  enough  it  was  a  lot  of 
toad's  eggs.  But  if  some  one  who  knew  about  it 
had  not  told  you,  you  would  never  guess  it. 

The  eggs  were  a  row  of  tiny  black  dots  in  a  string 
of  something  that  looked  like  a  clear  jelly.  The 
strings  of  eggs  were  very  long  and  hung  to  the 
water  weeds  in  loops.  Tom  got  some  pieces  of  the 
slippery  strings  of  eggs  into  the  jar. 

The  children  thought  that  they  could  be  sure 
that  these  things  were  toads  eggs  if  they  could  see 
some  toad  laying  them.  So  putting  the  jar  into  a 


60  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

safe  place  we  went  along  the  shore  to  look  for 
toads.  We  soon  found  that  there  were  plenty  of 
toads  in  the  pond.  This  looked  as  if  toads  do 
come  to  the  pond.  But  Bessie  said  "perhaps  these 
toads  always  live  here."  Tom  declared  that  he 
was  "  going  to  come  back  to  this  pond  when  the 
toads  were  through  laying  eggs,  to  see  if  they  still 
lived  here."  That  was  a  good  idea.  It  did  not 
take  long  to  catch  three  nice  big  toads.  Then  we 
were  ready  for  our  march  home  with  our  jar  of 
eggs  and  the  toads  wrapped  in  the  net. 

As  we  were  starting  Tom  said  "Why  can't  we 
see  some  toads  coming  to  the  pond?".  We  decided 
to  look  through  a  part  of  the  woods  and  a  field 
near  the  pond.  Sure  enough  we  found  many  toads 
going  toward  the  pond.  .  But  they  traveled  so 
slowly,  and  would  often  stop  and  snuggle  down 
trying  to  hide  when  we  came  near,  that  we  could 
not  wait  long  enough  to  follow  them  all  the  way  to 
the  pond.  But  I  may  say  here  that  several  days 
after,  we  made  this  visit  again  and  we  found  only  a 
few  toads  in  the  woods  and  field  and  very  few 
at  the  pond.  These  few  may  have  been  those 
which  have  their  homes  in  those  places.  All  this 
looked  as  if  the  people  were  right  who  say  toads 
came  from  distances  to  the  pond  and  then  go  back 
again. 

Then  we  picked  up  our  jars  of  eggs  and  net  of 
toads  and  trudged  home.  That  was  easy  for  us  to 
do  because  we  can  see  a  long  distance  and  have 
good  memories  to  help  us  to  find  the  way  back. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  61 

But  it  is  hard  to  understand  how  a  poor  little 
toad  can  do  it.  But  it  just  must  do  it,  or  soon 
there  would  be  no  more  toads.  So  it  has  its  way  of 
knowing  and  it  is  for  us  to  find  out  what  it  is. 

There  is  another  thing  worth  remembering  and 
that  is  when  egg-laying  time  comes  the  timid  old 
toad  must  become  very  brave.  For  think  of  all  the 
dangers  it  must  meet  when  it  leaves  its  snug 
hidden  hole  under  the  bush  or  door-step  and  starts 
out  alone  for  a  long  journey.  There  are  hawks  and 
owls  ready  to  pounce  down  on  it,  skunks  and 
'possums,  coons  and  weasels  and  many  other  kinds 
of  animals  and  worst  of  all,  snakes.  And  the  poor 
toad  can't  fight  or  run  away  fast  enough  from  any 
of  them.  Snakes  are  especially  bad  for  it,  for  they 
seem  to  like  toads  very  much  and  they  can  catch 
them  so  easily.  I  once  found  a  snake  with  a  toad 
fast  in  its  mouth  too  big  for  it  to  swallow.  There 
they  lay  neither  toad  nor  snake  able  to  do  anything. 
But  how  much  they  suffered.  Of  course  I  took 
them  apart  and  sent  the  snake  about  its  business  and 
carried  the  toad  far  away  hoping  they  would  not 
meet  again. 

Then  there  are  other  dangers.  For  example, 
we  saw  on  a  road  we  had  to  cross,  some  toads  that 
had  been  crushed  by  wagon  wheels.  Those  toads 
were  most  likely  on  their  way  to  the  pond,  and  got 
run  over  when  they  were  crossing  the  road.  Thus 
many  a  poor  toad  which  starts  out  on  his  pond 
journey,  never  lives  to  get  back  again. 

We  reached  home  all  right,  tired  but  happy  that 


62  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

we  had  secured  what  we  had  gone  after  and  that 
we  had  had  the  good  luck  to  really  see  the  toads  on 
their  spring  festival  of  pond  rinding  and  egg  laying. 
Our  next  fun  was  to  take  care  of  our  toads  and 
watch  the  eggs  hatch. 

How  A  TOAD  BEGINS  LIFE 

Tom  and  Bessie  each  filled  a  glass  jar  with 
water,  and  put  some  eggs  into  them.  I  put  a  few 
into  a  tumbler  and  put  it  on  my  desk.  In  each 
we  had  scattered  some  sand  over  the  bottom, 
and  put  in  some  water-plants  and  green  scum 
brought  from  the  pond,  so  that  when  the  eggs 
hatched)  the  little  tadpoles  would  feel  at  home. 

The  children  told  their  teacher  about  it  next  day 
and  she  was  delighted  and  wished  them  to  bring 
some  of  the  eggs  to  put  into  the  nice  little  aquarium 
which  they  had  in  the  school-room.  That  was  all 
very  fine,  for  now  we  had  four  different  places  in 
which  to  watch  the  hatching.  Next  the  three 
toads  had  to  be  taken  care  of.  We  were  very 
anxious  to  see  if  any  of  them  would  lay  eggs.  One 
was  very  fat  and  we  guessed  it  was  a  mother  toad 
full  of  eggs. 

We  found  a  large  glass  jar  and  filled  it  about 
half  full  of  water.  We  put  two  bricks  into  it. 
The  bricks  were  placed  in  such  a  way  that  they 
rose  out  of  the  water  a  little;  these  were  little 
platforms  for  the  toads  to  sit  on  when  they  became 
tired  of  swimming  around  in  the  water.  Then  the 
jar  was  covered,  so  that  they  could  not  get  out. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  63 

We  watched  and  waited  but  the  lazy  things  didn't  do 
a  thing  but  just  sit  around.  Of  course  after  awhile 
bed-time  came  and  we  gave  it  up  for  the  night. 

But  next  morning,  Oh  my!  There  were  the 
strings  of  toad's  eggs,  long  jelly-like  strings,  each 
with  a  row  of  black  dots  in  it.  They  looked  like 
long  slender  bead  necklaces.  The  toad  that  was  so 
fat  yesterday  was  now  quite  thin.  She  must 
have  been  the  mother  toad  which  laid  the  strings 
of  eggs.  They  must  have  been  just  freshly  laid, 
for  the  jelly  part  was  very  slender.  But  after 
a  while,  it  soaked  up  water  and  was  a  good  deal 
thicker.  When  the  whole  mass  of  strings  swelled 
with  water  they  looked  so  big  that  it  did  not  seem 
possible  that  one  toad  could  have  laid  them  all. 

The  children  started  to  count  the  eggs.  When 
they  got  up  to  357,  they  saw  that  they  could  not 
carry  it  through,  there  were  so  many.  And  no 
wonder,  for  some  grown  people  who  have  taken 
great  care  in  counting  toad's  eggs,  tell  us  that  one 
toad  sometimes  lays  many  thousands,  sometimes 
even  more  than  ten  thousand  eggs. 

What  could  we  do  with  so  many  eggs?  We  had 
already  as  many  as  could  live  in  the  jars,  and  no 
one  wished  to  see  these  eggs  die  so  I  suggested  that 
they  take  them  back  to  the  pond.  That  plan  was 
hailed  with  joy  for  it  meant  another  picnic  and  wad- 
ing fun  and  another  sight  of  the  pond-life.  This 
was  done  as  soon  as  we  could  get  away  next  day. 

But  it  was  now  time  to  look  after  the  eggs  in  the 
jars.  The  eggs  when  first  laid,  were  about  the 


64 


INTEKESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  18. — A  single  strand  of  toads  eggs  hanging  from  a  water  weed. 
Four  tadpoles  newly  hatched,  three  hanging  to  a  blade  of  water  weed. 
Tadpole  with  gills  showing.  Four  figures  of  tadpoles  showing  changes 
to  a  toad. 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  65 

size  of  a  pin-head.  In  a  day  or  so  they  were 
larger.  Then  in  another  day  or  two  we  could  see 
that  instead  of  a  little  round  egg,  there  was  a 
something  a  little  longer  and  it  wriggled.  Then  in 
another  day  out  swam  a  little  black  tadpole.  The 
egg  had  grown  into  that  little  animal.  These 
little  tadpoles,  which  the  children  also  called 
polliwogs,  swam  out  and  fastened  their  heads  to 
the  water-plants  and  hung  there  very  quiet  till 
disturbed.  By  looking  very  closely,  we  could  see 
that  each  one  looked  like  a  round  head  with  a  thin 
flat  tail  hanging  to  it. 

They  were  not  eating,  but  just  hanging  on  by  two 
little  suckers  near  where  their  mouth  ought  to  be. 

Out  of  the  side  of  the  head  very  delicate  thread- 
like branches  grew.  These  were  the  gills.  In  this 
they  were  like  little  fishes,  which  you  know  breath 
by  means  of  gills. 

It  was  nearly  two  weeks  before  the  little  things 
had  mouths  to  eat  with,  then  they  were  ready 
for  tadpole  business.  That  business  is  to  eat  and 
grow.  Now  they  became  very  active,  swimming 
about  and  eating  constantly  the  tiny  plants  of  the 
green  scum  and  the  slime  on  the  sides  of  the 
jar  and  surface  of  the  waterplant.  This  slime  is 
full  of  very  tiny  plants  and  animals,  so  small  you 
can  only  see  them  with  a  good  microscope.  This  is 
rich  food  for  tadpoles. 

As  we  watched  them  day  after  day  they  grew 
larger.  The  gills  gradually  became  hidden  under 
folds  of  skin  that  grew  over  them  and  protected 


66  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

them  while  the  tadpole  still  breathed  as  a  fish. 
What  at  first  looked  like  a  round  bead,  was  seen  to 
be  the  head  and  body.  One  day  Bessie  came  run- 
ning to  say  that  she  believed  one  of  her  tadpoles  had 
some  little  legs.  Tom  laughed  at  the  idea.  But 
sure  enough,  on  the  hind  part  of  the  body  on  each 
side  of  where  the  tail  joined  on,  was  a  tiny  but  a 
real  leg.  It  was  small  to  be  sure  but  a  little  leg  is 
as  much  a  leg  as  is  an  elephant's  leg. 

Then  of  course  we  looked  over  all  the  other  tad- 
poles more  carefully.  We  found  others  with  tiny 
legs  that  we  had  missed  seeing  before.  Those  that 
did  not  seem  to  have  legs  at  first,  were  found  to 
have  in  their  place  little  knobs  sticking  out  which 
is  the  way  the  legs  begin.  Then  Tom  said  "Of 
course  if  the  tadpoles  are  going  to  be  toads  they 
would  have  to  have  legs  grow  on  them."  So  now 
we  watched  more  closely. 

So  as  time  went  on,  we  "saw  the  hind  legs  grow 
larger,  then  the  front  legs  came  in  their  proper 
places.  While  this  was  going  on  the  tail  became 
smaller  and  sm  aller.  The  body  gradually  became 
more  like  a  toad's  body. 

We  noticed  that  the  tadpole  began  to  come  up  to 
breathe  air.  As  it  grew  more  like  a  toad,  it 
breathed  air  all  the  time.  It  kept  its  head  out  of 
water  most  of  the  time.  If  it  dived  it  would  soon 
have  to  come  up  to  get  a  breath  of  air,  as  it  no 
longer  breathed  through  gills. 

Finally  they  became  real  toads.  Very  small  it  is 
true  but  with  good  legs,  no  tail,  with  bright  eyes 


SOME    TOAD    STORIES  67 

and  a  big  mouth  with  a  toad's  tongue  ready  to 
catch  insects  instead  of  eating  plants.  They  were 
now  ready  to  leave  the  water  for  life  on  the  land. 

What  wonderful  changes  are  these  for  an  animal 
to  pass  through!  Hatched  from  an  egg  into  a 
fish-like  animal,  swimming  in  the  water  and 
breathing  like  a  fish  with  gills  and  living  on  plants. 
Then  changing  to  a  land  animal  with  four  legs  to 
hop  and  crawl  with  and  with  a  mouth  like  an 
insect  trap  with  which  to  catch  and  eat  animal 
food  and  with  lungs  with  which  to  breath  air.  We 
had  the  good  fortune  to  see  all  these  wonderful 
changes. 

The  children  wished  these  little  toads  would 
make  their  homes  in  their  garden.  They  dug 
some  holes  in  a  dark  shady  spot  and  placed  the  jars 
down  in  the  ground  just  as  if  they  were  ponds. 
They  thought  that  perhaps  when  the  little  toads 
left  the  jars,  they  would  only  go  a  little  way  to  find 
homes  to  stop  in. 

What  became  of  the  three  big  toads  we  had 
caught?  Well,  we  dug  a  hole  in  a  cool  damp  place 
in  the  garden  and  put  them  in  and  covered  it  up 
with  a  board.  We  thought  if  we  kept  them  there 
some  time,  they  might  get  to  thinking  it  was  home 
and  stay.  After  a  week  we  let  them  out.  The 
first  night  two  of  them  disappeared,  perhaps  looking 
for  their  old  homes,  the  other  one  still  staid  around 
the  garden  greatly  to  the  delight  of  Tom  and  Bessie. 

As  to  the  little  toads  they  were  so  tiny  that  it 
could  not  be  told  if  any  remained  in  the  garden. 


68  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

But  I  think  some  of  them  did.  When  they  get 
to  be  big  I  am  sure  some  of  them  will  be  seen. 

There  is  one  thing  worth  thinking  about.  If  a 
toad  mother  lays  ten  thousand  eggs  every  year 
and  they  all  live  to  be  toads,  would  not  the  world 
be  full  of  toads  in  a  few  years?  It  surely  would  be 
full  and  running  over. 

But  as  toads  are  of  about  the  same  number  now 
as  they  have  been  for  years,  there  must  be  only  one 
or  two  toads  grow  up  out  of  all  the  eggs  one  toad 
lays.  What  becomes  of  the  rest  of  them?  Well, 
many  kinds  of  animals  feed  on  toad's  eggs  and 
tadpoles,  such  as  fishes,  turtles,  ducks  and  other 
water  birds,  also  insect  larva?  in  the  water.  Then 
those  that  escape  all  these  enemies  and  live  to 
become  toads  still  have  to  meet  many  Jdnds  of 
animal  enemies  in  the  woods  and  fields. 

So  for  every  toad  living,  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  its  brothers  and  sisters  meet  some  sad 
fate  before  they  are  grown. 

Now,  since  only  a  few  of  the  eggs  escape  their 
enemies,  therefore,  nature  arranges  that  the  mother 
toad  lay  thousands  of  eggs,  so  that,  at  least  a  few 
may  grow  up  and  become  mothers  and  fathers.  If 
there  were  no  bird  or  animal  enemies  and  no  bad 
luck — no  thoughtless  little  boys  with  sticks,  no 
wheels  to  run  over  and  crush  them — then  each 
pair  of  toads  would  live  long  and  each  mother  need 
only  lay  two  eggs  to  take  their  place  when  they  die 
and  in  this  way  there  would  always  be  as  many  as 
we  have  now  from  year  to  year. 


THE  SILKWORM 

ITS  GREAT  WORK 

Before  Alice  starts  to  school  in  the  morning  I 
notice  that  her  mother  puts  a  nice  silk  bow  on  top 
of  her  head  fastened  in  some  way  to  her  hair. 
She  calls  it  her  hair  ribbon.  And  I  notice  that 
nearly  every  little  girl  I  see  has  a  big  bow  on  top 
of  her  head.  Some  have  silk  sashes  around  their 
waists. 

The  boys  that  I  meet  seem  to  think  that  when 
they  dress  up  they  must  at  least  have  silk  neck  ties. 
If  all  the  silk  hair  ribbons  and  sashes  and  all 
the  silk  neck  ties  of  just  this  small  city  were  brought 
together  what  a  large  pile  it  would  make.  But  if  all 
the  hair  ribbons  and  all  the  sashes  and  neck  ties 
of  the  whole  world  could  be  brought  together 
what  an  enormously  big  mountain  it  would  make. 

As  large  as  that  mountain  would  be,  there  would 
be  a  much  larger  lot  of  things  left  that  are  made  of 
silk.  There  are  all  the  silk  waists  and  dresses, 
ribbons,  silk  hats,  silk  flags  and  many,  many 
other  things  made  of  silk.  Then  too  satin  is  made 
of  silk  and  there  are  many  things  made  of  satin. 
Then  again  the  fine  velvets  and  finest  damasks 
are  of  silk. 

Silk  is  so  fine  and  soft  and  beautiful  that  people 
like  to  have  clothing  and  many  things  about  the 

69 


70  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

house  made  of  it.  But  it  is  so  expensive  that  we 
can  not  have  all  our  clothes  made  of  it.  Then  too 
other  kinds  of  things  make  better  clothing  for 
warmth  or  rough  use.  But  every  body  likes  at 
least  some  silk  or  velvet  things  to  wear. 

Human  beings  have  to  go  to  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
to  provide  clothing  for  themselves.  The  animals 
which  we  know,  big  and  little,  have  their  clothing 
grown  right  on  their  bodies.  Some  have  coats  of 
hair  like  dogs  or  cats  or  wool  like  sheep  or  fur  like 
the  rabbits.  The  birds  have  dresses  of  feathers 
and  the  fishes  have  a  covering  of  scales  on  their 
bodies. 

But,  as  you  know,  we  have  to  get  our  clothing 
made  for  us.  Most  of  what  we  wear  is  made  from 
three  things:  wool,  cotton  and  silk.  Of  course, 
some  is  made  from  other  things  as  linen,  rubber  and 
leather  but  most  of  it  is  made  of  wool,  cotton  or  silk. 

The  sheep  gives  us  the  wool,  the  cotton  comes 
from  the  beautiful  cotton  plant  and  the  silk  worm 
spins  the  silk  for  us.  It  takes  very,  very  large 
piles  of  wool,  cotton  and  silk  to  make  clothing  for 
all  the  peoples  of  the  world.  So  the  shepherds 
have  many  flocks  of  sheep  in  many  countries  for 
wool.  The  farmers  plant  many  many  fields  of 
cotton  plants  for  cotton.  Then  think  what  very 
great  numbers  of  little  silkworms  it  must  take  to 
spin  all  the  silk  for  the  silk  and  velvet  and  damask 
that  is  used  to  make  the  finest  and  most  beautiful 
clothing,  ribbons,  curtains,  and  ornamental  trim- 
mings of  all  kinds. 


THE    SILKWORM  71 

Thinking  about  these  things  makes  us  curious  to 
know  the  story  of  this  important  little  animal. 
This  is  our  story  of  the  silkworm  and  its  work  of 
spinning  the  silk  used  to  make  the  finest  of  all 
kinds  of  clothing.  We  wish  to  learn  how  such  a 
little  animal  has  done  such  great  things  as  to  make 
something  useful  and  beautiful  for  peoples  all  over 
the  world.  Of  course,  the  little  silkworm  does 
not  know  she  is  spinning  the  silk  for  people.  She 
spins  it  for  her  own  soft  cocoon  or  bed  where  she  is 
to  lie  until  great  changes  come  to  her.  People 
have  learned  how  to  take  this  cocoon  and  unwind 
the  fine  silk  thread  of  which  it  is  made  and  weave 
it  into  silk  cloth  for  themselves. 

A  QUEEN  DISCOVERS  THE  SILKWORM 

The  story  of  the  silkworm  is  like  a  fairy  story. 
The  people  who  first  learned  the  secret  of  the  silk- 
worm lived  thousands  of  years  ago  hidden  some- 
where in  that  great  country,  China. 

There  is  a  story  in  the  old  Chinese  books  that 
more  than  four  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago  a 
Chinese  queen  whose  name  was  Si-ling  first  thought 
that  the  beautiful  soft  silk  thread  that  the  silk- 
worm winds  into  a  cocoon  might  be  unwound  and 
made  into  fine  cloth.  She  had  the  ladies  in  her 
court  and  maids  in  her  house  help  her.  She  found 
the  way  to  unwind  the  thread.  She  next  had  a 
loom  made  to  weave  it  into  cloth.  Then  she 
taught  her  people  what  she  had  learned. 

They  thought  that  this  was  such  a  wonderful 


72  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

thing  that  they  kept  the  secret  very  carefully 
hidden  so  that  the  people  in  the  rest  of  the  world 
could  not  guess  how  silk  was  made.  When  a  piece 
of  silk  was  brought  out  of  China  people  who  saw  it 
would  marvel  at  its  softness,  its  fineness  and 
its  beauty  and  wonder  how  it  was  made?  It  was  a 
great  puzzle.  They  guessed  and  guessed  but  all 
their  guesses  were  wrong.  They  never  dreamed 
that  it  was  made  by  a  little  caterpillar. 

In  that  far  away  time  there  were  no  railroads 
and  very  poor  roads  of  any  kind.  There  were  no 
telegraphs  nor  telephones.  China  was  very  far 
away  and  few  travelers  ever  went  into  that  distant 
land.  So  China  was  to  other  countries  like  a 
hidden  world. 

The  silk  that  was  made  in  China  was  mostly 
used  in  that  country  itself.  What  did  come  out  to 
other  countries  came  in  packs  on  the  backs  of 
donkeys  and  camels;  mostly  the  camels  were  led  in 
groups  or  bands  called  caravans.  Sometimes  it 
took  many  many  months  for  the  silk  from  far  away 
China  to  be  brought  to  the  other  countries. 

All  this  made  silk  very  expensive.  A  silk  dress 
would  cost  as  much  as  its  weight  in  gold.  Only 
rich  kings,  queens,  princesses  and  princes  could 
have  any  clothing  made  of  silk.  No  hair  ribbons 
or  neck  ties  for  school  children  could  be  thought  of 
in  those  far  away  times. 

But  the  great  country  of  China  could  not  keep 
her  secret  about  silk  hidden  forever.  So  after 
some  thousands  of  years  the  secret  was  found 


THE    SILKWORM  73 

out  by  a  few  other  people.  Then  the  hidden  silk 
makers  of  far  away  China  were  not  the  only  ones 
who  knew  what  wonderful  stuff  the  little  cater- 
pillars could  produce.  Stories  are  told  of  three 
ways  by  which  the  secret  slipped  out. 

One  is  that  once  upon  a  time,  long  ago,  a  beauti- 
ful princess  in  China  hid  some  of  the  tiny  silkworm 
eggs  in  her  hair  and  head  dress  and  in  that  way 
carried  them  to  a  far  away  country  called  India. 
You  know  Chinese  princesses  have  their  hair  put 
up  into  very  large  and  beautiful  head  dresses. 
It  takes  so  much  time  and  trouble  to  do  them  up 
that  they  let  them  stay  that  way  a  long  time. 
This  made  a  good  safe  way  by  which  the  silkworm 
eggs  could  be  taken  out  of  China.  When  the 
Princess  reached  India  she  gave  the  eggs  to  the 
Emperor  and  explained  about  them.  He  was 
delighted  and  had  her  teach  his  people  how  to  rear 
the  silkworms  and  get  the  silk  from  them. 

There  is  a  story  that  Japan  just  took  the  secret 
by  force  from  the  Chinese.  It  is  said  that  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  sent  some  soldiers  and  captured 
four  Chinese  girls  who  knew  all  about  silkworms 
and  how  to  make  silk.  He  had  them  teach  his 
people  the  secret.  After  a  time  Japan  got  to  be  a 
great  silk  making  country.  The  Japanese  were  so 
grateful  for  what  these  girls  did  for  them  that  they 
made  temples  in  their  honor. 

Another  way  by  which  the  silkworm  secret  got 
out  of  China  is  this.  A  long  time  ago  two  Persian 
monks  went  as  missionaries  to  China  from  a  city 


74  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

now  called  Constantinople,  in  the  country  of 
Turkey.  While  in  China  they  learned  about  the 
silkworm  and  how  the  people  made  silk.  When 
they  started  back  home  they  made  themselves 
some  walking  canes  out  of  bamboo  which  is 
hollow.  They  secretly  hid  some  silkworm  eggs  and 
seeds  of  the  mulberry  tree  in  the  hollow  canes  and 
walked  out  the  long  distance  to  their  home  city. 
When  they  got  back  they  went  to  the  Emperor 
whose  name  was  Justinian  and  told  him  the  story 
of  the  silkworm  and  explained  how  the  silk  was 
made.  The  Emperor  was  very  much  pleased. 
He  had  the  monks  teach  some  of  his  people  how  to 
hatch  the  silkworm  eggs  they  brought  and  how  to 
care  for  the  caterpillars  and  make  silk  from  the 
silkworm  cocoons  that  they  spun. 

After  a  long  time,  peoples  of  other  countries 
learned  from  this  country  about  the  silkworms  and 
their  work.  Some  of  these  countries  are  France, 
Italy,  Spain,  England  and  the  United  States. 
The  peoples  of  these  countries  planted  mulberry 
trees  for  leaves  for  the  silkworms  to  feed  upon 
and  got  eggs  of  silkworms  and  hatched  them  and 
made  silk. 

Just  from  the  eggs  which  the  monks  brought  in 
the  hollow  canes  from  China  to  Constantinople, 
came  the  many  hundreds  of  millions  of  silkworms 
in  all  those  countries. 

China  and  Japan  still  breed  as  many  silkworms 
or  more  than  they  ever  did.  And  now  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  men,  women  and  children  in  many 


THE    SILKWORM  75 

parts  of  the  big  world  are  caring  for  the  little 
silkworm,  finding  it  mulberry  leaves  and  getting 
it  to  spin  its  silken  cocoon.  Then  from  these 
they  are  getting  the  silk  threads  and  making  the 
silk  cloth — always  saving  enough  eggs  to  keep  the 
work  going. 

OUR  FAMILY  OF  SILKWORMS 

Alice  and  I,  when  we  heard  what  an  important 
little  animal  the  silkworm  is,  wished  at  once  to  get 
some  and  watch  them  at  work. 

We  have  a  fine  mulberry  tree  in  our  yard  and 
there  are  a  number  of  others  near  us.  Thus  we 
did  not  have  to  plant  mulberry  trees  and  wait 
years  for  them  to  grow  before  we  could  begin. 
Silkworms  should  have  mulberry  leaves  to  feed 
upon.  They  can  also  live  on  osage 
orange  leaves.  They  will  not  eat 
any  other  than  these  two  kinds  of 
leaves  unless  they  are  just  starv-  FIG.  19.— silk- 
ing to  death  and  then  they  may  worm  eggs.  A  small 
try  to  eat  some  other  kinds,  but  they 
get  along  best  on  mulberry  leaves. 

A  kind  friend  gave  us  some  silkworm  eggs. 
They  were  small — as  small  as  little  pinheads. 
They  were  in  a  round  group,  close  together  and 
sticking  to  a  sheet  of  paper.  There  were  about 
three  hundred  of  them  in  one  group. 

We  put  the  slip  of  paper  with  the  eggs  on  it  into 
a  tray  made  of  a  paper  box  lid  and  watched  them 
day  by  day.  It  was  not  long  before  some  tiny 


76  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

little  caterpillars  hatched  from  some  of  the  eggs. 
They  were  dark  in  color  and  covered  with  fine 
hairs.  They  were  no  bigger  than  this  line  -. 
We  quickly  put  mulberry  leaves  in  the  tray  with 
them.  They  seemed  to  have  some  way  of  knowing 
what  the  leaves  were,  for  they  went  over  to  the 
leaves  at  once,  and  began  eating  them. 

They  were  so  very  small  that  they  could  not  eat 
much  in  a  day,  and  as  the  leaves  soon  dry  up,  fresh 
ones  are  given  once  or  twice  each  day. 

After  feasting  this  way  for  about  four  days  each 
little  caterpillar  stopped  eating  and  became  very 
quiet.  It  seemed  as  if  it  were  asleep  for  about  a 
whole  day  and  night. 

Then  the  covering  of  its  head  came  off.  Its 
skin  was  loose  from  its  body  and  out  it  crawled 
from  the  old  skin  covering.  It  was  quite  a  bit 
bigger  than  it  was  and  had  on  a  fresh  new  skin. 

This  is  the  way  all  other  kinds  of  caterpillars 
grow  as  well  as  the  silkworm.  The  outside  skin 
does  not  grow  larger  as  does  the  body  inside  the 
skin.  So  the  body  soon  gets  too  large  for  the  old 
skin.  The  body  forms  a  new  skin  over  it  just 
under  the  old  skin.  Then  the  old  skin  breaks  and 
the  caterpillar  crawls  out.  This  is  called  moulting. 

Soon  after  the  little  fellow  had  moulted  it  seemed 
hungry  and  began  eating  heartily  again  on  the 
mulberry  leaves.  It  ate  away  this  time  for  about 
five  days  more  and  then  seemed  to  go  to  sleep 
again.  It  was  getting  ready  for  another  moult. 
At  the  end  of  this  moult  it  was  bigger  than  ever. 


THE    SILKWORM  77 

It  was  large  enough  so  that  we  could  now  see 
plainly  its  head  and  mouth  and  its  legs.  It  had, 
near  its  head,  three  pairs  of  legs.  At  the  back 
part  of  the  body  were  four  pairs  of  feet  and  at  the 
very  end  was  one  pair.  On  these  five  pairs  of  feet 


FIG.  20. — Silkworm  on  mulberry  leaves  nearly  ready  to  spin  its  cocoon. 

there  are  many  very  small  sharp  claws.  With 
these  it  can  hold  to  the  leaf  very  firmly. 

In  about  five  more  days  there  was  another 
moult.  The  caterpillar  was  bigger  than  ever,  and 
eating  more  and  more. 

Then  in  about  five  more  days  was  the  fourth 
moult.  When  the  silkworm  came  out  of  this 
moult  it  was  quite  a  large  caterpillar.  It  was 


78  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

from  three  to  four  inches  long.  This  big  silk- 
worm was  very  hungry  and  ate  all  the  time.  We 
had  to  get  many  leaves  for  the  large  number  of 
caterpillars  we  had  and  change  the  leaves  three  or 
four  times  a  day.  In  watching  one,  you  could 
see  its  jaws  biting  off  the  edges  of  the  leaf.  It 
quickly  made  a  hole  in  a  leaf  and  soon  chewed  up 
the  whole  leaf. 

It  kept  up  its  lively  eating  for  a  week  or  more. 
Then  it  became  quiet  and  seemed  to  sleep  again. 
It  crawled  off  a  little  way  as  if  it  were  seeking  a 
quiet  place.  It  was  getting  ready  to  spin  its  silk 
bed  or  cocoon. 

The  mulberry  leaves  it  had  been  eating  were 
partly  used  in  its  body  to  make  it  grow  and  partly 
to  make  the  stuff  that  forms  the  silk.  Just  as 
when  a  cow  eats  grass,  some  of  the  food  it  takes  in 
is  made  into  the  flesh  of  its  body  and  some  is  made 
into  milk.  So  now  this  big  silkworm  is  full  grow^n 
and  is  ready  to  give  out  its  silk. 

SPINNING  THE  SILK 

The  worm  now  needed  some  quiet  snug  corner 
in  which  to  spin  its  bed.  The  bed  of  a  moth 
caterpillar  is  called  a  cocoon.  Well,  we  made  some 
cozy  corners  out  of  paste  board  and  placed  them 
about  on  the  tray  where  the  silkworms  were  ready 
to  spin. 

Soon  one  of  them  found  one  of  these  corners  and 
we  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  it  begin  its  work  and 
finish  it.  The  very  fine  silk  thread  is  spun  from 


THE    SILKWORM  79 

two  places  called  glands  that  are  near  its  mouth. 
It  first  fastened  the  silk  thread  on  one  part  of  the 
paste-board  corner.  Then  it  carried  it  across 
to  another  place  wide  apart  from  the  first  place. 
Then  it  carried  the  silk  thread  to  other  points  and 
fastened  it  all  around  until  it  had  a  loose  net 


FIG.  21. — Silkworm  cocoon. 

work  scattered  across  the  corner.  All  the  while 
it  kept  itself  inside  of  this  loose  net. 

Then  it  began  to  weave  the  silk  thread  round 
and  round  closer  to  its  body  until  it  had  a  beautiful 
veil-like  curtain  all  about  itself  nicely  hung  in  the 
loose  net  work  of  silk  with  which  it  had  first  filled 
the  corner. 

This  delicate  curtain  was  so  thin  that  when  we 
held  the  paste-board  corner  up  to  the  light  we 


80  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

could  see  the  worm  plainly  and  watch  it  put  the 
thread  down  and  around  it.  Busily  it  kept  up  its 
weaving  until  the  curtain  covering  about  it  got 
closer  to  its  body  and  became  thicker  and  thicker 
until  we  could  no  longer  see  the  worm  through  it. 
Then  it  had  its  silken  bed  done  where  it  was  to 
sleep  "until  it  changed  into  a  moth. 

SILKWORM  COCOONS 

It  was  very  interesting  to  see  this  little  fellow 
working  so  hard  and  going  through  all  its  wonderful 
changes.  We  often  thought  of  the  great  Chinese 
Queen  who  watched  these  same  changes  four 
thousand  five  hundred  years  ago  and  first  thought 
how  she  could  make  use  of  them  for  human 
beings. 

All  of  our  silkworms  made  white  cocoons. 
Sometimes  they  make  yellow  cocoons. 

If  the  silkworm  is  well  cared  for  and  has  a' quiet 
place,  the  cocoon  may  be  made  of  one  unbroken 
thread.  This  has  been  known  to  be  as  much  as 
a  mile  in  length.  It  is  often  as  much  as  a  half  a 
mile  of  unbroken  thread. 

The  silkworm,  like  other  caterpillars  of  moths, 
spins  a  cocoon  as  a  bed  in  which  to  sleep  while  it 
changes  to  a  moth.  As  a  moth  it  lays  its  eggs. 
The  eggs  hatch  out  into  caterpillars  and  in  this  way 
start  the  life  over  again. 

But  man,  who  wishes  to  get  the  finest  silk  for 
clothing,  takes  the  cocoon  before  the  moth  cuts  its 
way  out.  When  a  moth  does  get  out  the  silk 


THE    SILKWORM  81 

thread  is  broken  and  can  not  be  unwound  in  a 
very  long  single  piece.  To  keep  the  cocoons 
from  being  cut  by  the  moth  they  are  heated  so  as 
to  kill  the  little  sleeper  inside.  The  cocoons  that 
are  cut  are  not  thrown  away  as  people  know  how 
to  get  some  silk  out  of  them.  The  silk  makers  only 
save  enough  cocoons  to  bring  out  live  moths 
enough  to  lay  eggs  for  the  next  year's  lot  of  silk- 
worms. As  a  mother  moth  will  lay  about  three 
hundred  eggs,  people  can  use  a  great  number  of 
cocoons  for  silk  and  still  have  enough  left  to  raise 
the  next  year's  supply  of  eggs. 

As  we  were  not  going  to  make  silk,  but  wished 
only  to  watch  how  the  little  animal  lives  we  kept 
the  cocoons  until  the  moths  came  out  of  them. 

THE  SILKWORM  MOTH 

In  about  a  month  after  the  cocoons  were  made, 
one  day  a  moth  came  out  of  a  hole  it  had  cut  in 
one  end  of  the  cocoon.  Then  another  appeared 
from  another  cocoon.  A  little  later  the  others 
came  forth. 

When  a  moth  comes  out  of  a  cocoon  its  wings 
are  wrinkled  and  damp.  But  they  very  soon  dry 
and  smooth  out  and  become  firm.  The  moth 
keeps  fluttering  them  nearly  all  the  time  but  it 
is  never  strong  enough  to  fly. 

Other  kinds  of  wild  moths  are  good  fliers  when 
their  wings  get  dry.  We  often  see  them  flying 
about  the  flowers  in  the  evening,  or  they  may 
come  in  the  window  at  night  and  fly  about  our 


82  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

lamp  in  a  very  lively  manner.  But  the  silkworm 
moths,  for  so  many  thousands  of  years  have  been 
cared  for  by  people  who  brought  their  food  to 
them,  mated  them,  and  cared  for  their  eggs  that 
they  seem  to  have  lost  the  strength  to  fly  about 
as  other  kinds  of  moths  do. 

We  mated  our  moths  on  clean  sheets  of  paper 
and  after  a  short  time  each  of  the  mother  moths 


FIG.  22.— The  silkworm  moth. 

laid  a  group  of  eggs  which  she  glued  fast  to  the 
paper. 

Now  we  have  a  picture  in  our  minds  of  the  way 
the  silkworm  lives  and  makes  the  silk  for  all  the 
world. 

It  is  wonderful  to  think  of  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  in  the  far  away  countries  of 
China,  Japan,  India,  France,  Italy,  Spain  and 
England,  and  even  in  still  other  countries,  every 
year,  who  raise  the  silkworms  and  cocoons  and  the 


THE    SILKWORM  83 

thousands  and  thousands  of  others  who  take 
the  cocoons  and  unwind  them  and  weave  them  into 
silk.  To  do  this  they  make  use  of  many  small  and 
many  large  machines  and  many  large  buildings. 

The  children  in  most  of  these  countries  help  in 
taking  care  of  the  silkworms.  How  interesting 
it  would  be  to  visit  these  countries  and  see  the 
children  of  different  peoples  at  this  work.  When  a 
girl  puts  on  her  silk  hair  ribbon  or  a  boy  his  silk 
tie  we  may  wonder  if  the  silkworm  was  fed  by  a 
French,  an  Italian,  a  Turkish,  a  Chinese,  a  Japa- 
nese, a  Persian  or  some  other  far  away  country 
child.  When  the  child  of  a  far  away  country, 
in  its  strange  dress,  and  speaking  a  strange  lan- 
guage, gathers  mulberry  leaves  for  the  silkworms 
in  his  home,  he  does  not  dream  that  he  is  helping 
to  produce  silk  for  a  ribbon  for  little  girls  away 
across  the  ocean  in  far  off  America. 


A  SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE  FRIEND 

"Ladybird,  Ladybird  fly  away  home, 
Your  house  is  on  fire  and  your  children  will  burn." 
So  sang  Alice  as  she  leaned  over  a  little  ladybird, 
as  it  was  crawling  across  a  rose  leaf.  Sure  enough 
the  ladybird  quickly  raised  its  wing  covers  and 
unfolded  its  filmy  wings  and  flew  away.  But  it 
was  so  quickly  out  of  sight,  that  you  couldn't  tell 


FIG.  23.— The  ladybird. 

if  it  went  to  its  home.  This  old  song  to  the 
ladybird  has  been  sung  by  children  in  many 
countries  and  for  many  years.  I  suppose  our 
grandmothers  sang  it  to  ladybirds  when  they  were 
little  girls,  and,  no  doubt,  their  grandmothers 
sang  it  too.  Some  of  them  may  have  called  them 
ladybugs  and  some  ladybirds,  but  it  is  all  the  same, 
though  ladybird  sounds  nicer. 

Everybody  knows  the  ladybird  and  likes  it  too 
and  never  thinks  of  harming  it.     It  is  so  pretty 

84 


A    SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE    FRIEND  85 

and  innocent  looking.  But  every  one  would  like 
it  still  better  if  he  only  knew  the  very  great 
good  it  does  for  us. 

But  how  can  such  a  little  thing  as  this  tiny 
beetle  do  any  great  good?  Well,  it  often  happens 
in  this  world  that  very  little  things  can  do  a  very 
great  good  or  can  do  a  very  great  harm.  The  little 
ladybird  does  us  an  immense  amount  of  good  by 
fighting  some  very  little  things  that  do  an  immense 
amount  of  harm. 

There  are  a  number  of  kinds  of  very  small 
insects  which  fasten  themselves  tight  to  the  stems 
or  leaves  or  fruit  of  many  kinds  of  trees.  They 
fit  so  closely  to  the  stems  that  they  do  not  appear 
as  insects  or  any  thing  alive.  They  look  like 
little  scales  or  scabs  on  the  bark.  For  this  reason 
they  are  called  scale  insects.  They  pierce  down 
into  the  plant  with  a  sharp  beak  and  suck  out  the 
juices.  Just  a  single  one  may  have  so  many 
children  that  soon  there  may  be  thousands  all 
over  the  bark,  leaves  and  fruit.  Although  each 
scale  is  very  small,  the  very  great  numbers  take 
so  much  juice  out  that  they  make  the  plant  weak 
and  sick  and  spoil  the  fruit.  They  may  get  so  bad 
that  the  plant  dies. 

The  number  of  kinds  of  scale  insects  is  so  great, 
that  there  is  one  kind  for  almost  every  kind  of 
plant.  They  are  very  harmful  to  the  different 
kinds  of  fruit  trees.  If  left  alone  they  would  spoil 
most  of  them  and  kill  great  numbers  of  them.  The 
orchard  man  has  to  fight  them  all  the  time.  Now 


86  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

this  is  where  the  little  ladybird  comes  in  to  do  its 
great  good.  It  helps  rid  the  fruit  trees  of  the 
ruinous  scale  insects. 

The  neatly  dressed  little  ladybird  looks  very 
charming  and  innocent  as  she  busies  about  over 
the  stems  and  leaves.  And  she  is  so  harmless  to  us. 
But  the  trim  little  lady  is  really  a  terror  to  the 
scale  insects.  She  lives  on  their  eggs  and  on  the 
scales  themselves.  She  knows  how  to 
hunt  them  out.  Although  the  scale 
insects  have  clever  ways  of  hiding 
their  eggs  and  of  making  themselves 
look  like  any  thing  but  a  live  insect, 
they  can  not  deceive  the  ladybird. 

The  ladybird's  children  are  just  as 
FIG.  24.— The  destructive  to  the  scale  insects  and 
larva  of  the  their  eggs  as  is  the  grown  up  mother. 

(En~  They  do  as  much  Sood  for  the  or- 
chard trees  as  the  grown  folks  of  the 
ladybird  family. 

Of  course  Alice  wished  to  see  some  of  the  children 
she  had  been  singing  about.  Well,  they  were  very 
easily  found,  for  they  are  as  common  as  the  grown 
ups.  But  when  we  found  some  on  the  plants, 
Alice  could  hardly  believe  such  ugly  little  things 
belonged  to  such  a  tidy  little  mother.  They  are 
somewhat  flat,  and  about  half  an  inch  long.  The 
surface  of  the  body  is  rough  and  hairy.  It  is  dark 
with  some  reddish  spots  on  its  back.  It  has  six  legs 
and  as  it  slowly  crawls  about  it  gives  you  a  creepy 
feeling. 


A    SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE    FRIEND  87 

After  searching  through  the  garden  and  orchard 
we  found  a  number  of  ladybirds,  but  they  were  not 
all  alike.  Their  shape  is  very  much  the  same,  but 
they  differ  in  size  and  color.  Some  are  red,  some 
black,  some  red  with  black  spots  on  the  wing 
covers.  Some  kinds  are  more  common  in  one 
part  of  the  country  and  some  in  another. 

The  different  kinds  of  ladybirds  live  in  much  the 
same  way.  But  some  kinds  like  one  sort  of  scale 
insect  better  than  the  others  do.  So  you  will 
probably  find  ladybirds  on  the  plants  that  have 
their  favorite  scale.  Different  kinds  of 
ladybirds  have  different  ways  of  placing 
their  eggs.  Some  hide  them  one  by  one 
on  the  plant.  Others  place  them  in 
little  clusters  near  where  the  tiny  young  FIQ  25  _ 
ones  can  find  the  scale  insect  food  as  pupa  of  the 
soon  as  they  are  hatched.  Of  course  ladybird, 
the  little  children  of  the  different  kinds 
of  ladybirds  are  also  somewhat  different,  but  they 
all  look  more  or  less  like  the  one  we  found,  whose 
picture  is  given  here.  You  can  see  that  it  looks 
something  like  the  aphis-lion  and  it  is  about  as 
greedy  in  eating  scale  insects  and  plant  lice,  no 
matter  where  it  finds  them. 

Like  the  caterpillars  of  butterflies  and  moths,  the 
children  hatched  from  the  ladybird's  eggs  must 
change  their  skins  as  they  grow.  This  changing  of 
skin  is  called  moulting.  All  insects  grow  in  this 
way.  The  young  that  hatches  from  the  egg  of  an 
insect  is  called  a  larva.  The  caterpillar  is  the  larva 


88  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

of  the  moth  or  butterfly.  The  aphis-lion  is  the 
larva  of  the  lacewinged  fly.  Thus  it  is  said  that 
the  larva  of  the  ladybird  moults  four  times. 
Every  time  it  moults,  it  is  a  little  bigger  and  a 
little  uglier  and  kills  more  scales  than  ever. 

When  it  comes  time  for  the  larva  period  of  life 
to  end,  it  hangs  by  its  tail  and  humps  up  into  a  sort 
of  ball.  This  is  something  like  the  chrysalis  of  the 
butterfly.  It  is  then  called  the  pupa.  There  it 
awaits  the  change  that  goes  on  inside  the  ball,  and 
when  it  comes  out  it  is  a  complete  little  ladybird, 
fitted  up  with  wings,  covers,  and  all  the  other  parts 
that  make  up  this  pretty  little  beetle. 

Many  interesting  stories  could  be  told  to  show 
how  important  some  ladybirds  become.  In  some 
parts  of  California  there  are  many  orange  and 
lemon  orchards.  From  them  car  loads  of  oranges 
and  lemons  are  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  United 
States  and  other  countries.  Perhaps  every  boy 
and  girl  has  eaten  an  orange  or  has  drunk  a  glass 
of  lemonade  made  with  lemons  from  the  orchards  of 
California.  Now  there  is  a  kind  of  scale  insect 
that  lives  on  orange  and  lemon  trees.  Its  name  is 
the  cottony  cushion-scale.  It  is  given  that  name 
because  its  eggs  are  laid  in  bunches  that  look  like 
little  pieces  of  cotton,  which  lie  under  the  scale 
like  a  cushion.  This  scale  lives  on  other  plants  as 
well  as  orange  trees.  But  it  seems  to  like  orange 
trees  very  much.  One  mother  scale  may  lay  as 
many  as  a  thousand  eggs.  In  the  summer  there 
may  be  several  broods.  Thus  the  increase  in 


A    SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE    FRIEND  89 

number  is  very  very  fast,  as  you  can  see.  When 
once  the  scale  gets  started  on  a  tree  the  whole  tree 
is  soon  covered  with  thousands,  then  the  tree  gets 
sick,  the  fruit  spoils,  and,  at  last  the  tree  is  killed. 
Well,  some  years  ago  the  cottony  cushion-scale 
attacked  the  orange  and  lemon  orchards  of  Cali- 
fornia and  increased  to  such  great  numbers  that 


FIG.  26.  FIG.  27. 

FIG.  26. — The  cottony  cushion-scale.  The  fluted  part  looks  like 
cotton  and  is  filled  with  its  eggs. 

FIG.  27. — The  Vedalia.  The  great  fighter  of  the  cottony  cushion- 
scale.  (Enlarged.) 

people  thought  all  their  orange  orchards  would  be 
destroyed.  They  did  every  thing  they  could  to 
kill  off  the  scale  insects  but  they  came  on  too  fast 
for  them.  Finally  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of 
Mr.  Albert  Koebele  went  to  the  far  away  country  of 
Australia,  and  there  found  a  tiny  ladybird  which 
eats  only  cottony  cushion-scale  eggs.  He  caught 
a  number  of  these  and  brought  them  on  the  long 
trip  across  the  great  Pacific  Ocean  to  California. 
He  set  them  free  in  a  California  orange  orchard. 
Then  the  great  fight  began.  A  few  spunky  little 


90  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

ladybirds  against  the  millions  of  cottony  cushion- 
scales  that  were  eating  up  the  thousands  of  orange 
and  lemon  orchards  of  the  state!  This  little 
Austrailan  ladybird  lays  many  eggs  and  raises 
children  very  fast  herself.  The  children,  the 
larvae,  are  great  eaters  of  cottony  cushion-scale 
eggs  as  well  as  are  their  mothers.  They  both 
worked  hard  eating  eggs,  the  mothers  rearing  more 
and  more  children  till  at  last  they  checked  the 
increase  of  the  scale  and  the  orange  orchards  are 
safe.  One  name  for  this  ladybird  is  the  Vedalia, 
which  is  rather  a  pretty  name.  A  picture  is  given 
of  it.  The  color  is  red  with  black  markings.  It 
has  a  fuzz  of  fine  hairs  over  its  back.  All  the 
orange  men  in  California  know  about  this  little 
friend  and  think  it  is  worth  many  times  its  weight  in 
gold. 

There  are  other  enemies  of  the  cottony  cushion- 
scale.  In  addition  the  orchard  men  keep  fighting 
this  scale  and  other  insect  enemies  with  poison 
gas  and  sprays  of  poisonous  liquids,  but  they  believe 
the  little  Australian  Vedalia  ladybird  was  the  real 
savior  of  the  orange  orchards.  They  trust  to  the 
Vedalia  to  keep  them  safe.  Whenever  a  boy  or 
girl  gets  a  big  California  orange  to  eat,  he  may 
thank  the  little  friend  that  Professor  Koebele 
brought  from  the  other  side  of  the  world. 

Professor  Koebele  found  another  ladybird  which 
he  brought  to  the  orange  orchards  and  let  loose  at 
the  cottony  cushion-scale.  This  one  helps  the 
Vedalia  fight  the  scale  and  is  an  immense  help. 


A   SMALL  BUT  VALUABLE    FRIEND  91 

This  one  has  been  named  the  Koebele  ladybird,  to 
honor  the  man  whose  eyes  were  sharp  enough  to 
find  these  great  cottony  cushion-scale  fighters. 

Many  other  interesting  stories  could  be  told  of 
other  kinds  of  ladybirds  and  their  fights  against 
many  kinds  of  scale  insects  and  plant  lice  to  save 
our  fruit  trees  and  other  plants  that  we  value 
highly. 

I  once  saw  an  interesting  sight  that  astonished 
me  greatly.  One  winter  day  I  was  tramping  in 


FIG.  28.  FIG.  29. 

FIG.  28. — The  Koebele  ladybird,  another  great  enemy  of  the  cottony 
cushion-scale.  (Enlarged.) 

FIG.  29. — A  common  kind  of  ladybird.  This  is  the  kind  that 
sometimes  gathers  in  great  numbers  in  California  in  winter. 
(Enlarged.) 

the  foot  hills  of  Black  Mountain  near  Stanford 
University  in  California.  In  a  deep  canyon  filled 
with  a  growth  of  trees  and  ferns,  I  came  upon  a 
large  stump  that  had  a  reddish  color.  On  examin- 
ing it  more  closely,  I  found  it  covered  with 
thousands  of  ladybirds,  piled  up  several  inches 
deep.  They  not  only  covered  one  side  of  the 
stump,  but  a  thick  layer  of  them  was  stretched 
out  on  the  ground,  at  the  bottom  of  the  stump. 


92  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

Near  this  was  a  great  log.  One  side  of  it  was  also 
covered  with  ladybirds.  If  they  had  all  been 
gathered  up  there  would  have  been  several  gallons 
of  them. 

Later  I  learned  that  in  the  mountains  of  Califor- 
nia, such  great  gatherings  of  ladybirds  have  been 
found  in  various  places  every  winter.  In  some 
other  parts  of  the  United  States,  it  is  said  that 
bunches  of  ladybirds  have  been  found  in  winter 
time,  although  not  in  such  large  numbers  as 
those  sometimes  seen  in  the  mountains  of  Califor- 
nia. It  is  said  that  in  the  spring,  the  ladybirds 
leave  their  companies  and  scatter  to  the  valleys 
where  they  can  find  scale  insects  and  plant-lice. 
They  were  just  here  spending  the  winter  together. 

But  why  they  select  those  places,  and  how  they 
select  them  and  find  them  and  how  they  tell  one 
another  about  it  so  that  they  can  get  together  is  a 
mystery  that  has  not  yet  been  solved. 

Not  all  ladybirds  spend  their  winters  in  great 
companies.  Some  hide  in  cracks  and  crevices  and 
in  other  sheltered  places,  either  by  themselves  or  a 
few  together  where  they  remain  quietly,  until  the 
winter  is  over.  When  Spring  comes,  they  come 
out  and  fly  forth  to  find  their  hunting  grounds  and 
raise  their  great  broods  of  homely  but  hard  working 
children,  to  carry  on  the  great  summer  fight 
against  plant  lice  and  scale  insects. 


A  SKILFUL  MASON 

One  September  day  in  looking  through  an  old 
trunk  that  had  been  stored  in  the  attic,  I  came 
upon  a  shirt  that  had  a  large  piece  of  dried  mud 
sticking  fast  to  it.  That  certainly  looked  like  a 
strange  place  for  mud  to  be.  I  peeled  it  off  and 
took  it  down  to  show  the  children.  "Oh,  that  is  a 


FIG.  30. — A  mud-dauber  wasp's  nest. 

mud-dauber's  nest/'  cried  Andrew,  "I  have  seen 
lots  of  them  sticking  to  the  rafters  of  the  barn. 
They  are  made  by  wasps."  "What -do  you  think 
is  in  this  one?"  I  asked.  "I  don't  know.  I  never 
opened  one  but  I  suppose  young  wasps  and  I  don't 
care  to  open  one"  said  he. 

Then  I  proposed  to  open  it  for  them  and  take  the 
risk  of  getting  stung.  So  they  gathered  around 
the  table  to  get  a  good  look.  I  carefully  cut  away 

93 


94  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

the  hard  mud  from  one  side  and  found  a  little  tube 
about  an  inch  long.  The  children  watched  intently 
but  were  ready  to  dodge  if  a  wasp  flew  out.  But 
no  wasp  flew  out.  Instead  out  rolled  a  half 
dozen  little  things.  " Spiders"  called  out  Ella. 


FIG.  31. — A  mud-dauber's  nest  .opened  showing  the  spiders  taken  out 

of  it. 


And  sure  enough  they  were  spiders  and  not  all  of 
the  same  kind. 

They  were  examined  again  and  again,  and  then 
came  the  questions:  How  could  spiders  get  into 
such  a  place?  What  were  they  doing  there? 
Arthur  was  sure  he  had  seen  wasps  carrying  mud 
and  making  the  nests  so  spiders  could  not  have 
made  it.  Any  way,  he  said,  the  spiders  were 
dead. 


A   SKILFUL   MASON  95 

Andrew  had  been  turning  the  spiders  over  with 
a  straw  when  he  said  "I  don't  believe  they  are 
dead.  They  act  as  if  they  are  asleep.'7  He  argued 
that  a  dead  spider  would  be  all  dried  up  and  its  legs 
drawn  up  to  its  body.  But  the  legs  of  these 
spiders  fell  about  as  if  their  owners  were  asleep 
or  dazed. 

Then  Arthur  touched  one  with  a  stick  and  was 
sure  it  moved  a  little.  Then  they  all  tried  it  and 
found  that,  true  enough,  some 
of  them  moved  just  a  little 
bit.  It  all  seemed  quite  a 
mystery. 

While  Ella  was  examining 
them,  she  cried  "  What  is  this 
little  thing  hanging  to  one  of        FIG.  32.— The  kind  of 
the  spiders?"    All  eyes  were    J££  that   made   the 
then  turned  toward  this  spider 
and  it  was  seen  that  the  little  thing  hanging  to  it 
was  a  tiny  grub  that  was  eating  the  spider. 

People  who  have  watched  very  carefully  the 
mud-dauber  at  work  give  us  the  true  explanation 
of  the  mystery. 

The  wasp  gathers  little  balls  of  mud  and  with  the 
skill  of  a  master  mason,  patiently  builds  a  tube 
such  as  we  had  before  us.  Before  she  puts  the  cap 
on,  she  goes  hunting  for  spiders.  The  spiders 
which  live  by  pouncing  on  insects  are  pounced  on 
in  turn  by  this  clever  little  wasp.  She  stings  the 
spider  just  enough  to  benumb  it  but  not  kill  it  and 
stores  it  in  the  tube. 


96  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

She  keeps  on  doing  this  until  the  tube  is  full  of 
spiders  and  then  she  lays  an  egg.  Then  she  puts 
a  cap  over  the  tube.  When  the  wasp's  egg  hatches 
into  a  little  grub,  it  has  enough  spiders  stored  with 
it  to  last  it  as  food  until  it  grows  large  enough  to 
almost  fill  the  tube.  Then  like  many  insects  it 
makes  a  cocoon  and  lies  asleep  through  the  winter, 
until  it  is  ready  to  come  out  as  a  full  grown  wasp 
in  the  spring. 

When  this  change  takes  place  the  new  wasp  cuts 
a  hole  in  the  end  of  the  tube  and  crawls  out,  and  is 
ready  to  fly  about  and  start  in  making  a  mud  nest 
of  its  own. 

Now  to  look  again  at  the  nest.  There  was  more 
than  one  tube.  The  mother  wasp  makes  one  and 
fills  it,  then  she  goes  to  work  on  another,  and 
plasters  it  to  the  side  of  the  first  one.  This  is 
stored  with  spiders  and  one  egg  is  laid  on  one  of  the 
spiders  and  the  tube  is  sealed  up.  Then  others  are 
built.  When  she  has  a  number  finished  she 
plasters  them  over  with  mud  so  that  the  whole 
group  looks  like  one  lump  of  dried  mud. 

There  are  very  many  kinds  of  mud-daubers  and 
they  do  not  all  finish  their  nests  in  just  the  same 
way.  So  if  you  find  one,  it  may  be  a  little  different 
from  the  one  the  children  saw  but  still  they 
are  all  very  much  alike.  Afterward  a  number  of 
nests  were  opened  and  it  was  found  that  some  of 
them  were  filled  with  only  one  kind  of  spider 
while  other  nests  were  stored  with  different  kinds 
in  the  same  nest.  The  number  of  spiders  in  the 


A   SKILFUL   MASON  97 

nests  were  not  the  same  for  the  different  nests. 
The  largest  number  found  in  one  nest  was  twenty 
five. 

These  wasps  differ  from  most  other  wasps  by 
having  very  long  slender  waists.  That  is,  the 
hinder  part  of  the  body  is  joined  to  that  part  which 
bears  the  wings  by  a  very  slender,  long  stem,  which 
we  might  call  the  waist.  The  picture  was  made 
from  a  wasp  caught  building  one  of  the  nests. 

Is  it  quite  fair  to  call  them  mud-daubers? 
They  do  not  daub  the  mud  about,  but  build  very 
skilfully  the  neatly  made  tube,  just  the  right  size 
for  the  body  of  the  cocoon.  They  skilfully  make 
the  outside  look  like  a  rough  daub  of  mud,  no 
doubt  to  deceive  some  animal  looking  for  the 
wasp's  grubs  to  eat. 

Then  although  they  work  in  the  mud,  they  do  it 
very  daintily  and  do  not  smear  themselves  with  it. 
Sometimes  children  are  seen  making  mud  pies  and 
they  get  the  mud  on  their  hands,  faces  and  clothes 
and  do  not  even  make  pretty  shaped  pies.  They 
might  well  be  called  "  mud-daubers. "  But  the 
wasps  should  be  called  masons  from  their  workman- 
like way  of  doing  things. 

Arthur  thought,  and  we  all  agreed  with  him, 
that  the  most  wonderful  thing  about  this  wasp  was 
the  power  and  skill  of  stupefying  the  spiders  so 
that  they  would  continue  to  live,  yet  be  helpless 
for  so  long  a  time.  If  the  spiders  died  they  would 
dry  up  and  not  be  fit  for  food.  If  they  were  put 
into  the  tube  alive  but  not  made  helpless,  the 


98  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

savage  creatures  would  eat  up  the  little  grubs, 
instead  of  the  grubs  eating  them. 

Well,  we  are  not  the  only  ones  to  consider  this  a 
wonderful  thing.  Scientific  students  of  insects, 
think  it  one  of  the  most  wonderful  facts  in  nature, 
that  an  insect  should  have  such  a  remarkable 
poison  and  know  just  in  what  part  of  the  spider's 
body  to  place  it,  and  just  how  to  put  it  there  to 
benumb  the  spider,  but  not  kill  it.  There  are 
some  other  kinds  of  wasps  that  have  this  way  of 
preserving  the  creatures  .they  catch  for  food  for 
their  grubs. 

Man  has  tried  many  ways  to  preserve  the  plants 
and  animals  he  wishes  to  store  away  for  food. 
The  Indians  used  to  cut  the  flesh  of  the  deer  they 
had  killed,  into  strips  and  dry  them.  This  has 
been  called  jerked  venison  and  it  may  be  kept  a 
long  time. 

In  countries  where  they  have  cold  winters,  people 
sometimes  kill  their  chickens,  pigs  and  sheep  and 
freeze  them.  They  would  in  this  way  be  good 
as  long  as  it  was  cold  enough  to  keep  the  meat 
frozen.  Some  people  keep  their  turnips,  beets  and 
cabbages  by  putting  them  in  cellars  that  are  cool, 
but  not  cold  enough  to  freeze. 

Nowadays,  great  warehouses  are  built  which  can 
be  made  very  cold  like  a  big  refrigerator.  They 
are  called  cold  storage  houses.  Into  these,  various 
kinds  of  meats,  eggs,  fruit  and  vegetables  can 
be  kept  until  they  are  needed. 

Then  again  great  quantities  of  fruit  and  vege- 


A    SKILFUL    MASON  99 

tables,  as  well  as  meats,  are  canned  or  dried. 
These  are  the  inventions  of  man.  But  long  before 
man  ever  invented  these  ways,  the  mud  wasps  had 
found  a  way  that  man  does  not  understand  well 
enough  to  copy.  I  hope  human  beings  will  never 
learn  that  way  for  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  cruel  one. 


THE  MILKWEED  BUTTERFLY 

A  THEE  BLOSSOMING  WITH  BUTTERFLIES 

A  pine  tree  has  many  charms  for  us.  It  stands 
up  straight  and  stretches  out  its  arms  loaded  with 
tufts  of  needle  leaves  and  cones  of  seeds.  With  a 
great  army  of  its  fellows,  it  makes  a  noble  forest 


FIG.  33. — The  milkweed  butterfly.     The  Monarch. 

which  covers  the  hills  and  mountains  with  a  dark 
green  mantle..  In  its  depths  many  a  bird  and  beast 
and  insect  finds  its  home.  A  path  that  winds 
through  a  pine  forest  leads  you  to  a  thousand 
interesting  sights  and  sounds. 

100 


THE    MILKWEED   BTJTTERFLY  ,    J.Q1, 

But  as  much  as  we  love  a  pine  tree,  we  can 
hardly  claim  for  it  that  itjs  a  bright  object.  No, 
it  is  quite  a  sober  looking  tree,  except  sometimes, 
when  the  rising  sun  may  light  up  the  dew-drops 
hanging  to  its  needles,  or  when  the  rays  of  the 
setting  sun  may,  just  after  a  shower  of  rain,  make 
brilliant  the  drops  of  water  still  clinging  to  the 
tips  of  the  pine  needles. 

But  once,  while  strolling  along  a  path  in  the  pine 
woods  near  Pacific  Grove,  on  Monterey  Bay, 
California,  I  saw  a  pine  tree  gay  with  bright  colors. 
It  looked  as  if  it  had  burst  into  the  bloom  of  a 
thousand  bright  flowers.  I  was  filled  with  aston- 
ishment at  the  sight  and  quickly  went  nearer  to 
find  out  what  wonderful  thing  had  happened  to  the 
sober-colored  pine  tree  to  paint  it  up  so  gorgeously. 

On  coming  near,  the  mystery  was  solved.  There 
were  hanging  from  the  branches  and  needles  thou- 
sands of  large,  brightly  colored  butterflies.  The 
mystery  of  the  color  of  the  pine  tree  was  explained, 
but  there  was  another  mystery.  That  was,  where 
did  this  great  company  of  brilliant  creatures  come 
from,  and  why  did  they  gather  together  here  in 
such  vast  numbers? 

It  was  an  easy  thing  to  catch  these  butterflies. 
It  was  just  like  picking  peaches  from  a  peach  tree. 
All  you  had  to  do  was  to  take  them  off  with  your 
fingers.  They  were  hanging  quietly  as  if  taking 
a  rest  after  a  long  journey  to  this  meeting  place. 
Here  is  a  picture  made  from  one  of  the  visitors  to 
this  butterfly  convention. 


102  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

, 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  MILKWEED  BUTTERFLY 

This  butterfly  is  called  by  several  names.  The 
most  common  are  the  Milkweed  Butterfly  and  the 
Monarch  Butterfly.  In  the  scientific  books  about 
it,  it  has  the  name  Anosia  plexippus  which  for 
some  reasons  is  a  useful  name  and  Anosia  at  least 
has  a  pleasant  sound.  But  milkweed  butterfly 
is  a  good  name  and  easy  to  remember.  It  is 
called  that  because  it  always  lays  its  eggs  on  some 
kind  of  milkweed  where  they  hatch  into  cater- 
pillars which  feed  on  the  leaves. 

The  milkweed  butterfly  is  very  beautiful  and  it  is 
quite  large.  The  one  in  the  picture  was  four 
inches  from  tip  to  tip  of  its  front  wings,  but  some 
are  as  much  as  five  inches  across.  The  upper  side 
of  the  body  is  black  with  some  small  white  dots  on 
the  front  part.  The  borders  of  the  wings  and  the 
lines  on  the  wings  are  black.  The  spaces  between 
the  lines  are  dark  orange.  There  is  a  double  row 
of  white  dots  on  the  margins  of  the  wings.  The 
underside  of  the  wings  is  about  the  same  as  the 
upper  only  the  orange  spaces  are  of  a  lighter 
shade,  and  there  are  rows  of  white  dots  on  the  body. 

This  beautiful  butterfly  may  be  found  all  over 
the  United  States  during  the  summer  time. 
Wherever  there  is  some  kind  of  milkweed  on 
which  to  raise  its  children  we  may  look  for  the 
milkweed  butterfly.  As  the  butterfly  does  not 
eat  the  leaves  of  the  milkweed  but  sips  the  nectar 
of  many  kinds  of  flowers  as  its  only  food,  it  flies 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  103 

over  the  gardens  and  fields  and  along  the  edges 
of  the  woods,  low  down  in  the  valley  and  high  up 
in  the  mountain,  wherever  flowers  are  found. 

It  visits  so  many  places  and  is  so  large  and 
showy,  that  those  who  look  for  butterflies  are 
pretty  sure  to  find  this  one  in  their  rambles.  It  is 
a  beautiful  sight  to  see  it  flying.  It  has  a  small 
light  body  and  such  large  wings  that  its  flight  is 
easy  and  graceful.  It  does  not  have  to  flutter 
or  violently  flap  its  wings  but  softly  fans  the  air  or 
glides  smoothly  along  by  sailing.  When  it  wishes 
to  do  so  it  can  make  a  strong  flight.  If  a  wind 
springs  up  it  may  veer  right  into  it  and  fly  bravely 
against  it,  sometimes  rising  as  high  as  the  tree  tops. 
We  know  that  it  can  fly  long  distances  as  it  has 
been  seen  flying  along  by  people  on  ships  more  than 
one  thousand  miles  from  land.  It  is  hard  to 
understand  how  such  a  light  frail  thing  can  show 
so  much  strength  and  courage  as  to  face  a  storm 
or  to  venture  so  far  in  its  flight.  Because  it  does 
so  it  is  called  the  Monarch  and  makes  every  one 
admire  it. 

Dressed  up  so  gaily,  sailing  about,  sipping  nectar 
from  beautiful  flowers,  opening  and  shutting  its 
gaudy  wings  to  show  them  off  or  resting  on  the 
soft  petals  of  some  bright  bloom,  you  might  think 
this  beautiful  thing  very  lazy  and  frivolous.  But 
it  has  its  very  important  work  to  do  and  if  it  did 
not  do  it  there  would  be  no  milkweed  butterflies 
in  a  year  or  so. 

It  must  find  a  milkweed  and  lay  eggs  on  it.     It 


104  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

must  be  careful  and  make  no  mistake  and  get  its 
eggs  on  any  other  plant,  for  if  it  did,  when  the 
little  caterpillars  hatched  out,  they  would  starve 
to  death. 

How  does  the  mother  butterfly  know  milkweed 
from  other  plants?  She  has  fed  on  nothing  but 
nectar  of  flowers  all  her  butterfly  life  and  could  not 
bite  into  a  milkweed  leaf  to  taste  if  it  she  wished  to 
do  so.  That  is  a  hard  question  to  answer.  Per- 
haps she  remembers  back  to  the  time  when  she  was 
a  caterpillar  and  feasted  herself  on  milkweed. 
Perhaps  she  got  so  much  smell  and  taste  and  feel  of 
milkweed  in  those  days  of  feasting  on  it,  that  she 
can't  forget  it  and  can  still  tell  milkweed  from  all 
other  plants.  At  any  rate  she  has  some  way  of 
telling,  and  it  is  a  very  good  way,  for  she  has  never 
been  known  to  make  any  mistake  about  it. 

When  she  finds  a  milkweed,  her  next  work  is  to 
fasten  one  egg  to  it,  usually  on  the  underside  of  a 
leaf.  As  you  might  expect,  from  one  with  such 
charming  manners  and  dresses,  she  is  very  delicate 
and  neat  in  her  work.  The  egg  is  not  as  large  as  a 
pin  head.  But  if  you  look  at  it  with  a  magnifying 
glass  you  will  see  that  it  is  a  very  beautifully 
shaped  object.  It  is  like  a  cone-shaped  piece  of 
jewelry  carved  with  many  fine  delicate  lines  which 
are  arranged  in  a  very  neat  pattern. 

She  may  place  more  than  one  egg  on  this  plant, 
but  not  many,  for  two  or  three  caterpillars  are 
about  all  that  can  get  enough  food  to  live  on  out 
of  one  plant,  as  they  are  quite  large  when  grown 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  105 

and  they  are  very  hungry  people.  She  then  flies 
to  another  milkweed  and  then  on  and  on  to  many 
places  far  apart. 

THE  CATERPILLAR'S  LIFE  ON  ITS  MILKWEED  HOME 

The  life  of  this  milkweed  caterpillar  is  like  the 
life  of  all  butterfly  caterpillars.  If  you  could  find 
one  of  these  caterpillars  it  would  be  a  very  interest- 
ing sight  to  watch  its  ways  of  living  and  growth. 
In  seeing  the  life  of  this  little  animal  from  the 
egg  to  the  butterfly,  you  learn  the  way  by  which 
every  other  kind  of  butterfly  becomes  the  beauti- 
ful visitor  of  flowers  that  it  is.  They  differ  in  that 
each  kind  picks  out  its  own  kinds  of  plants  for 
its  caterpillars  to  live  on. 

A  box  or  a  glass  fruit  jar  with  a  cover  on  it  will  do 
for  a  cage  to  keep  the  caterpillar  in.  Or  you 
might  make  a  cage  like  some  of  those  shown  in 
books  about  insects.  When  a  caterpillar  is  found, 
it  is  placed  in  the  cage  with  some  milkweed  leaves. 
Then  every  day  give  it  some  fresh  pieces  of  the 
stems  of  milkweed  with  leaves  on  it.  If  you  are 
lucky  enough  to  find  an  egg,  so  much  the  better, 
for  then  you  may  have  the  good  fortune  to  see  the 
very  beginning  of  the  story. 

Four  or  five  days  after  an  egg  is  laid,  it  hatches 
into  a  tiny  caterpillar.  The  first  thing  this  little 
fellow  does  is  to  eat  up  its  own  egg  shell.  It  has  its 
reasons  for  such  a  breakfast  but  it  has  never  told 
me  what  they  are.  After  that  it  is  milkweed, 
and  always  milkweed,  without  even  trying  what 


106 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


the  other  kinds  of  leaves  taste  like.     That  is  the 
way  it  is  with  some  other  kinds  of  caterpillars. 


FIG.  34. — Caterpillar  of  the  milkweed  butterfly. 

They  live  on  only  one  kind  of  leaf  all  their  days. 
While  still  some  other  kinds  will  eat  every  kind  of 
green  leaf  they  can  get. 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  107 

This  little  caterpillar's  work  is  to  eat  and  grow 
as  big  as  it  can.  When  full  grown  it  is  almost  two 
inches  long  and  is  fat  and  roly-poly.  Now  there  is 
one  thing  about  a  caterpillar  that  causes  it  a  little 
trouble  once  in  a  while  as  it  gets  bigger,  and  that  is 
its  skin,  which  is  a  thin  hard  covering  that  will  not 
stretch.  Now,  as  the  caterpillar  grows,  the  skin 
gets  very  tight  and  must  be  got  rid  of  if  the  animal 
is  to  be  any  bigger.  Nature,  however,  has 
arranged  for  all  this  very  nicely.  Every  few  days 
a  new  skin  grows  over  the  body  just  under  the  old 
skin  and  loosens  the  old  skin,  which  breaks  and 
lets  the  caterpillar  come  out  with  a  clean  new  suit 
of  clothes  on  and  ready  for  another  time  of  feasting. 

Caterpillars  and  butterflies  do  not  breathe 
through  their  mouths  nor  do  they  have  lungs. 
Along  the  side  of  our  caterpillar  you  can  see, 
plainly,  a  row  of  eight  dots.  Looking  very  closely 
you  will  find  that  these  are  curious  little  openings 
into  the  body.  They  are  the  breathing  holes  of 
the  animal.  They  are  called  spiracles.  Each  one 
is  the  opening  of  a  tube  that  divides  into  smaller 
tubes  that  spread  out  into  all  parts  of  the  body. 
The  air  is  taken  in  by  these  spiracles  and  goes 
through  the  air  tubes  to  every  little  part  of  the 
body.  Every  movement  of  the  body  causes  the 
air  to  move  in  and  out  the  spiracles.  Not  only 
caterpillars  but  all  kinds  of  insects  breathe  in  this 
way. 

The  shedding  the  old  skin  is  called  moulting. 
The  milkweed  caterpillar  goes  through  this  change 


108  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

four  times  before  it  attains  its  full  growth.  It  is 
said  to  have  four  moults.  If  you  have  a  caterpillar 
in  a  cage,  you  will  be  sure  to  see  one  or  more  of  the 
moultings.  When  it  feels  one  of  these  changes 
coming  on,  it  finds  what  it  thinks  is  a  good  place 
on  a  leaf  and  spins  a  silk  rug,  which  it  glues  fast  to 
the  leaf.  This  rug  is  just  the  thing  for  the  hun- 
dreds of  fine  sharp  hooks  of  its  back  feet  to  fasten 
into.  Then  it  takes  its  place  on  the  rug,  fastens  its 
hind  feet  into  it  and  quietly  waits  for  something  to 
happen. 

It  will  stay  perfectly  still  in  this  way  for  a  long 
time  and  then  perhaps  after  a  whole  day  it  begins 
to  make  motions  with  its  body  from  side  to  side 
and  in  other  ways,  still  holding  tightly  to  the  silk 
rug.  These  movements  get 'the  new  skin  loose 
from  the  old  skin.  First  the  head  is  drawn  back 
from  the  old  head  covering.  Then  the  old  skin 
splits  just  behind  the  head  covering  and  that  gives 
the  caterpillar  its  chance  to  crawl  out  of  its  old 
skin  which  it  gets  rid  of  by  making  many  move- 
ments of  its  body,  as  if  it  were  a  great  deal  of  hard 
work.  After  it  is  over,  the  head  covering  lies  in  one 
piece  and  the  old  skin  of  the  rest  of  the  body  shrinks 
up  very  small.  The  caterpillar  with  its  new  soft 
skin  then  rests  quietly  awhile,  waiting  for  the  new 
skin  to  get  firmer  so  that  it  can  move  about  more 
safely. 

Then  strange  to  say,  it  turns  about  and  eats  up 
the  old  skin  before  it  begins  on  the  milkweed  leaf 
again.  That  does  not  look  like  a  nice  thing  to  do, 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  109 

but  it  must  be  all  right  for  caterpillars,  or  they 
wouldn't  do  it.  All  this  can  be  seen  best  in  the  last 
moult  when  the  worm  is  large  and  the  parts  more 
easily  seen. 

The  caterpillar,  when  it  is  first  hatched  out  is  not 
so  brightly  colored  as  it  gets  to  be  later.  But  as  it 
becomes  larger  it  is  quite  a  beautiful  object. 
When  grown,  it  is  nearly  two  inches  long  and  has 
bright  black,  yellow,  and  green  stripes  running 
crosswise  over  the  body,  which  are  so  plain  that  the 
caterpillar  is  easily  seen  on  the  plant  while  feeding. 

There  are  two  long  black  thread-like  horns 
rising  up  just  a  short  distance  behind  the  head. 
These  wave  back  and  forth  as  it  crawls.  There 
are  two  smaller  ones  near  the  tail  end  of  the  body. 
They  give  the  caterpillar  an  important  look.  Per- 
haps the  horns  are  thought  by  them  to  be  stylish, 
like  feathers  in  a  cap.  It  has  very  strong  jaws 
for  biting  off  and  crushing  mouthfuls  of  the  leaf. 
And  at  the  mouth  is  a  tiny  spinning  machine  from 
which  silk  is  spun  when  it  makes  its  silk  rug  to 
fasten  to  when  it  moults. 

Just  back  of  the  head  are  three  pairs  of  jointed 
legs,  each  ending  with  little  claws.  It  uses  them 
just  as  if  they  were  hands  with  fingers.  They 
hold  the  leaf  to  the  mouth  with  them  and  also  use 
them  to  handle  the  thread  of  silk.  These  six  legs 
grow  into  the  six  legs  of  the  butterfly  later. 

Besides  these  six  jointed  legs  it  has  five  pairs  of 
very  short  ones  without  joints  on  the  back  part  of 
the  body,  One  pair  is  at  the  very  hind  tip  of  the 


110  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

body.  These  are  short  stubs  more  like  mere  feet 
than  legs.  They  are  little  knobs  of  skin  furnished 
with  rows  of  hundreds  of  very  fine  little  hooks 
which  they  can  fasten  into  or  loosen  from  the  rough 
surface  of  the  leaf  or  the  silk  rug  which  they  spin. 
If  you  let  the  caterpillar  crawl  on  your  hand,  it  can 
hold  on  to  your  skin  by  these  feet,  the  hooks  of 
which  you  can  feel  as  tiny  scratchings. 

These  five  pairs  of  unjointed  feet  are  for  use 
while  it  is  a  caterpillar  and  are  lost  when  it  changes 
into  a  butterfly.  They  are  so  very  useful  to  the 
caterpillar,  that  it  could  not  get  along  without 
them.  It  uses  them  to  crawl  safely  on  both  the 
upper  and  under  side  of  the  leaf.  Then  it  must 
have  them  in  moulting,  to  hold  firmly  to  the  silk 
rug.  Of  course  the  surface  over  which  it  crawls, 
has  to  be  a  little  rough  for  it  to  fasten  the  hooks  in. 
If  it  comes  to  a  smooth  place  on  the  plant's  stem, 
or  if  it  had  to  climb  up  a  piece  of  glass,  it  has 
to  stop  until  it  spins  up  a  pathway  of  silk  which 
it  glues  fast  to  the  smooth  surface.  It  can  then 
walk  up  this  pathway  because  its  feet  with  the 
hooks  can  lay  hold  on  the  silk.  This  makes  the 
crawling  up  the  side  of  a  glass  jar  very  slow  work, 
but  there  is  no  other  way  to  do  it. 

Since  milkweed  caterpillars  are  so  clearly  marked 
with  gay  stripes  of  bright  colors  and  sit  in  plain 
view  on  top  of  their  milkweed  towers,  you  would 
think  that  the  caterpillar  eating  birds  would  not 
leave  one  of  them  alive.  But  for  some  reason  the 
birds  do  not  seem  to  like  this  kind  of  caterpillar 


THE    MILKWEED  BUTTERFLY  111 

very  well.  Perhaps  they  have  a  smell  or  taste 
not  pleasant  to  the  birds.  At  any  rate  the  birds 
let  them  pretty  well  alone. 

But  they  do  not  have  such  good  luck  with  some 
kinds  of  insects,  especially  when  they  are  little. 
Then  spiders  and  crickets  and  other  insects 
pounce  upon  them.  There  are  too,  certain  kinds 
of  insects  that  have  a  horrible  way  of  alighting  on 
the  backs  of  caterpillars  and  stabbing  a  hole  in 
them  and  laying  their  eggs  right  in  the  caterpillar's 
body.  These  eggs  hatch  out  in  the  caterpillar's 
body  as  tiny  larvae  that  gradually  eat  the  poor 
caterpillar  alive. 

When  our  milkweed  caterpillar  gets  scared  by 
rough  handling  it  tries  the  trick  many  insects  and 
some  other  animals  know.  That  is  of  pretending 
to  be  dead.  It  will  roll  itself  into  a  ball  and  drop 
down  into  the  grass  and  keep  perfectly  still  for 
quite  a  while.  This  is  a  pretty  good  trick  for  it  is 
certainly  hard  to  find  this  lifeless  little  thing  among 
the  trash  on  the  ground. 

If  our  caterpillar  escapes  all  its  enemies  it  must 
be  a  happy  life  that  it  leads,  dressed  in  gay  colors, 
with  plenty  of  nice  juicy  cream  of  milkweed  to  eat 
and  riding  on  the  top  of  its  pretty  plant  as  it 
"nods  and  bends  in  the  breezes."  But  a  short 
time  after  the  fourth  moult  the  caterpillar  part  of 
its  life  must  come  to  an  end  and  it  must  get  ready , 
to  become 'a  butterfly. 

To  pass  from  a  crawling  worm-like  animal, 
gorging  itself  with  milkweed  leaves  to  a  big  beauti- 


112 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


ful  butterfly,  that  can  fly  fast  and  far  and  feed  on 
the  nectar  of  flowers,  requires  such  great  changes 
that  you  would  think  them  impossible  if  you  did 
not  see  them  happen. 

THE  CHRYSALIS 

That  the  caterpillar  may  grow  into  a  butterfly, 
it  first  changes  to  what  is  called  a  chrysalis.  In 
the  stories  of  the  silkworm  and  the  tent-caterpillar 
it  was  seen  that  the  caterpillar  wove  about  itself  a 
room  of  silk  called  a  cocoon  in  which  to  lie  while 
the  changes  went  on  that  made  it  into  a  moth. 

Most  moth  caterpillars  weave 
silk  cocoons,  but  most  butter- 
fly caterpillars  do  without  the 
silk  curtains  and  hang  as  a 
chrysalis  from  a  limb  of  a 
tree  or  a  leaf  or  other  solid 
support. 

If  you  should  find  a  chrysa- 
lis of  the  milkweed  butterfly, 
without  knowing  about  it, 
you  would  never  guess  that 
it  had  any  thing  to  do  with 
either  the  caterpillar  or  the  butterfly.  But  if  you 
have  the  caterpillar  in  a  cage  you  can,  by  watching 
the  changes,  prove  the  truth.  The  chrysalis  is 
found  as  a  little  barrel-shaped  thing,  a  little  more 
than  an  inch  long  and  about  half  an  inch  through. 
It  hangs  by  a  slender  black  stem  ending  in  many 
little  hooks  caught  in  a  minute  button  of  silk, 


FIG.  35. — Chrysalis  of  the 
milkweed  butterfly. 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  113 

fastened  to  the  support.     And  you  would  not  find 
any  thing  in  a  jewelry  store  more  beautiful. 

It  is  more  beautiful  than  any  watch  charm  or 
locket.  It  is  a  delightful  green  with  golden  dots. 
Around  about  its  middle  is  a  row  of  tiny  knobs  in  a 
band  of  black  and  yellow.  How  our  caterpillar 
makes  this  astonishingly  fine  covering  and  manages 
to  hang  it  so  neatly  to  a  stick  is  something  that 
cannot  well  be  told  but  better  to  be  seen  and 
wondered  about.  Of  course  it  has  to  moult  again 
to  do  it. 

For  this  moult  it  gets  ready  by  leaving  the 
milkweed  and  crawling  away  some  distance  to  look 
for  a  good  quiet  place  where  it  hopes  it  will  not  be 
disturbed,  and  where  there  is  something  on  which 
to  hang  the  chrysalis.  On  the  stick  or  fence  rail 
which  it  has  chosen,  it  first  spins  a  little  knob  or 
button  of  silk.  In  this  it  fastens  the  hooks  of  the 
pair  of  feet  at  its  very  tail  end  and  hangs  head 
downward.  Now  it  is  ready  to  get  rid  of  its  cater- 
pillar skin  and  come  out  with  its  new  and  charming 
chrysalis  covering. 

As  you  watch  it,  it  does  not  seem  at  all  an  easy 
thing  to  do.  But  by  many  movements  and  split- 
ting of  the  old  skin  and  wriggling  out  of  the  old 
sheh1,  it  finally  gets  over  the  difficult  task.  It 
manages,  too,  to  slip  out  the  little  black  rod  with 
hooks  on  the  end  and  fasten  the  hooks  in  the- 
button  of  silk  that  the  feet  of  the  old  skin  held  on 
by.  Now  it  is  good  bye  to  the  old  skin  and  instead 
there  is  a  briUiant  new  chrysalis  hanging  like  a 


114  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

jeweled  lantern  or  chamber,  which  will  open  before 
long  to  let  a  butterfly  come  out. 

The  chrysalis  is  so  still  and  rigid  that  you  might 
think  the  caterpillar  had  died  and  this  was  its 
coffin.  Perhaps  you  have  seen  pictures  of  the 
coffins  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  used  for  their 
mummies  that  were  found  in  the  great  Pyramids, 
where  they  were  placed  thousands  of  years  ago. 
Or  you  may  have  seen  the  coffins  in  museums. 
Their  surfaces  were  painted  with  many  colors. 
But  this  quiet  beautifully  colored  chrysalis  is  no 
coffin  with  the  body  of  a  dead  caterpillar  in  it. 
The  little  animal  in  it  is  very  much  alive  and  is, 
in  its  way,  hard  at  work. 

There  is  going  on  in  its  body,  silently,  a  wonder- 
ful work.  All  the  beautiful  and  curious  parts  of  a 
large  and  charming  butterfly  are  being  finished  in 
this  pretty  house.  There  is  nothing  more  won- 
derful than  the  things  that  go  on  inside  of  the 
exquisite  chrysalis  hanging  to  an  old  fence  rail. 

THE  COMING  OUT  OF  THE  BUTTERFLY 

When  the  caterpillar  went  into  this  decorated 
covering,  it  already  had  started  to  form  itself 
into  a  butterfly.  In  its  body  were  tiny  little 
beginnings,  we  might  call  them  buds,  some  of  which 
grew  into  wings,  some  into  the  eyes,  the  legs, 
the  curiously  formed  tongue  and,  indeed  all  the 
other  parts  of  the  full  grown  butterfly.  Put  a 
caterpillar  by  the  side  of  a  butterfly.  How 
different  they  look!  The  changes  that  made  one 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  115 

into  the  other  went  on  inside  of  the  jeweled  case  of 
the  chrysalis.  In  fairy  stories  we  read  that  a 
fairy  may  change  one  thing  into  another  by  the 
touch  of  her  magic  wand.  Is  there  any  thing  more 
magical  .than  the  making  a  butterfly  out  of  a 
caterpillar? 

The  butterfly  at  first  is  very  much  cramped  in  the 
chrysalis  case.  It's  coming  out  is  really  moulting 
once  more.  As  in  the  other  moults,  the  covering 
of  the  chrysalis,  which  is  the  old  skin,  splits  and 
slowly  out  comes  the  butterfly  with  the  beautifully 
colored  new  skin  covering  wings,  body  and  legs. 

At  first  our  butterfly  is  very  soft  and  pamp  and 
weak.  It  hangs  by  its  claws  to  the  first  thing  it  can 
catch  hold  of,  not  yet  able  to  fly.  Its  wings  are  at 
first  short  and  thick  and  wet.  But  they  gradually 
stretch  out  to  their  full  size  and  become  thin  and 
dry.  The  covering  of  the  rest  of  the  body  also 
becomes  more  firm. 

In  one  way  the  new  skin  of  the  wings  is  wonder- 
fully different  from  the  skin  of  either  caterpillar 
or  chrysalis.  It  is  covered  with  what  looks  like 
dust,  which  rubs  off  on  your  fingers  if  you  touch  it. 
If  you  see  this  dust  under  a  microscope  you  will 
find  that  it  is  made  of  beautifully  shaped  scales, 
which  cover  the  wings.  They  are  all  attached  in 
rows.  One  row  overlaps  the  one  below  it  like 
shingles  on  a  house.  They  are  of  beautiful  colors 
and  of  many  fantastic  shapes.  The  butterfly  works 
away,  carefully  fitting  together  two  long  pieces 
that  are  to  be  its  tube-like  tongue.  When  that  is 


116  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

done  the  tongue  is  coiled  up  in  a  spiral,  like  a  watch 
spring,  and  tucked  up  neatly  under  its  head.  It  is 
now  ready  to  unroll  and  thrust  down  into  a  flower 
to  pump  out  the  nectar. 

Now  that  it  can  move  its  feelers,  its  long  tongue, 
its  legs  and  its  beautiful  wings,  it  is  fully  ready  to  go 
forth  on  its  life  of  egg-laying,  nectar  sipping  and 
travel  far  and  wide.  No  more  troublesome  moult- 
ing. It  has  become  perfect  and  remains  so  the  rest 
of  its  life. 

THE  MONARCH'S  MIGRATIONS 

Those  who  have  watched  the  milkweed  butter- 
fly for  years  tell  us  that  the  birds  seem  to  let  it 
pretty  much  alone.  Like  its  caterpillar,  it  seems 
to  have  a  taste  and  smell  that  birds  do  not  like. 
Now,  as  many  birds  are  quite  fond  of  most  butter- 
flies, it  is  a  fine  thing  for  our  monarch  to  be  left 
alone  by  them.  We  already  know  what  a  splendid 
flier  it  is.  Since  some  kind  of  milkweed  is  found  in 
most  parts  of  the  United  States  and  in  many  other 
countries,  there  is  always  plenty  of  food.  This,  and 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  molested  by  birds,  as  well  as  its 
power  of  flight,  gives  the  monarch  much  better 
chances  of  living  than  most  butterflies  get.  These 
are  the  reasons  its  kingdom  is  so  large. 

When  we  started  to  learn  about  this  butterfly 
you  remember  that  we  were  surprised  to  find  a 
great  company  of  thousands,  clinging  to  a  pine 
tree  near  Monterey  Bay,  on  the  coast  of  California. 
It  was  learned  later  that  about  the  same  time  in  the 


THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  117 

fall,  there  were  gatherings  like  this  in  places  as  far 
away  as  in  New  England  and  other  places  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  also  in  other  parts  of  the  United 
States.  Some  of  these  gatherings  were  much 
larger  than  the  one  I  saw.  Some  think  that  in  this 
way  they  are  getting  together  to  journey  south,  as 
many  kinds  of  birds  do  before  the  winter  comes  on 
Such  a  journey  is  called  migration.  There  does 
seem  to  be  proof  that  the  milkweed  butterflies 
of  the  northern  parts  of  the  United  States,  do  fly 
to  the  Southern  States  just  before  winter.  Still  it 
is  a  great  puzzle  as  to  why  they  should  get  together 
in  such  great  numbers  on  their  way.  Then  how 
do  they  get  word  to  each  other  over  such  wide  dis- 
tances telling  where  the  meeting  place  is?  How  do 
they  plan  their  movements?  How  do  they  know 
the  way  south? 

In  parts  of  the  country  where  crows  live  in 
numbers,  we  know  they  sometimes  gather  in  a 
great  company  before  going  south.  But  they  are 
very  intelligent  birds  and  can  shout  and  chatter  so 
loud  and  so  much,  it  is  easier  to  guess  how  they 
might  do  it.  But  it  is  certainly  a  mystery  how 
this  mild,  quiet  little  butterfly  manages  it.  The 
other  kinds  of  butterflies  have  not  yet  learned  to 
have  such  great  conventions. 

STUDYING  BUTTERFLIES 

No  doubt  you  have  many  questions  in  mind 
about  our  butterfly,  which  are  not  answered  in 
this  story.  Perhaps  you  may  answer  some  of 


118  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

these  yourself  by  trying  to  watch  some  of  the 
many  kinds  of  butterflies  about  the  woods  and 
fields  of  your  home.  Or  you  may  get  eggs  or 
caterpillars  and  raise  some  butterflies  in  cages 
for  yourselves. 

This  story  has  been  about  one  butterfly,  the 
milkweed  butterfly  or  monarch.  It  was  chosen 
because  it  may  be  found  in  most  places  in  the 
United  States  and  most  likely  near  to  your  home. 
But  all  butterflies  go  through  about  the  same 
program  of  life.  That  is :  egg,  caterpillar,  chrysalis, 
and  butterfly.  The  eggs  of  the  different  kinds  are 
of  different  sizes  and  shapes  and  are  laid  in  different 
kinds  of  places.  The  caterpillars  of  the  different 
kinds  feed  on  plants  of  their  own  particular 
tastes.  The  chrysalis  of  each  kind  has  its  own 
particular  size,  shape  and  color  and  its  own  kind  of 
hiding  place. 

The  butterflies  also  differ  in  form  and  habits  of 
life.  But  any  one  of  them  is  a  very  interesting 
little  animal  and  can  be  watched  in  about  the 
same  way  as  we  have  watched  the  monarch  in  this 
story. 

The  beauty  of  butterflies  has  given  pleasure  to 
many  people  even  in  olden  times.  Their  charming 
dress  and  interesting  ways  have  led  many  persons 
to  explore  our  own  country  and  many  far  away 
lands  in  quest  of  them.  So  there  are  many 
beautiful  books  written  about  them.  People  have 
traveled  far  to  find  the  many  kinds  and  learn  their 
ways.  You  may  see  in  museums  fine  collections  of 


t  THE    MILKWEED   BUTTERFLY  119 

them  brought  from  many  foreign  countries.  So  if 
you  get  interested  in  butterflies  you  can  easily  find 
much  help  from  the  books  and  collections.  Thus 
the  watching  and  study  of  one  butterfly  like  our 
Milkweed  Butterfly,  may  lead  you  to  learn  much 
of  many  countries  beside  our  own.  Your  thoughts, 
may,  like  the  butterflies,  fly  to  many  strange  and 
beautiful  regions  to  get  pleasure  from  them. 


THE  TOMATO-WORM 

It  was  a  beautiful  bright  warm  summer  morn- 
ing. The  garden  was  a  delight,  for  the  plants 
were  green  and  healthy  and  growing  fine.  Mary 
stepped  down  from  the  kitchen  and  went  through 
the  garden  gate  with  her  basket,  on  her  way  to 
gather  some  beans,  cucumbers  and  tomatoes 
for  our  dinner.  I  don't  blame  her  for  going  slowly 
past  the  flower  beds  where  the  bees,  wasps  and 
and  butterflies  were  buzzing  and  fluttering  over  the 
flowers,  gathering  their  delicious  dinner  ready 
prepared  for  them.  It  was  set  out  in  hundreds  of 
beautifully  shaped  and  beautifully  colored  cups  and 
saucers  and  dishes.  These  were  finer  than  are  ever 
seen  on  a  table  full  of  china  and  silver  sets. 

Then  all  at  once,  Mary  remembered  how  hungry 
we  soon  would  be  and  hurried  on.  But  in  a 
minute  she  came  rushing  back,  her  eyes  wide 
open  with  excitement.  "  What's  the  matter?" 
cried  Tom.  "You'll  just  have  to  go  without 
tomatoes  before  you  catch  me  in  that  tomato  patch 
again,"  she  answered  quickly.  "Why,  what  has 
happened?"  asked  Bessie.  "  When  I  stooped  down 
to  pick  a  tomato,  there  sitting  up  on  the  vine 
were  three  big  green  worms,  that  looked  like 
dragons.  Each  had  a  big  horn  on  its  tail  and  it 
raised  up  on  its  hind  feet  and  shook  its  head  and 

120 


THE    TOMATO-WORM  121 

snapped  its  jaws.     It  looked  like  it  was  saying, 
'You  just  dare  to  touch  me  and  HI  hurt  you/ ' 
Mary   was    surely    in    earnest.     Dragons!    Well 
that  word  excited  Tom  and  Bessie  and,  of  course, 
they  were  impatient  to  see  them.     But  I  noticed 


FIG.  36. — The  tomato-worm.     The  caterpillar  of  the  humming-bird 

moth. 


they  held  back  a  little  and  turned  to  me  to  know 
if  I  would  not  show  them  the  monsters,  as  it  was 
quite  plain  that  Mary  was  not  going  to  do  it. 
I  said  I  would  gladly  go  and  that  there  was 
nothing  to  be  afraid  of,  for  I  knew  pretty  well  that 
if  the  dragons  were  on  the  tomato  plants,  they 
were  just  some  old  friends  that  were  up  to  their 
old  tricks  of  making  a  big  bluff. 


122  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

We  were  soon  searching  the  tomato  vines.  At 
first  we  could  see  no  signs  of  the  frightful  beings 
that  had  caused  Mary  to  beat  such  a  quick 
retreat.  But  soon  we  found  them,  crawling  on  one 
of  the  top  branches  of  a  tomato  vine.  They  were 
just  nothing  but  three  big  tomato-worms.  They 
are  perfectly  harmless,  except  to  tomato  leaves  but 
these  they  do  gobble  down  pretty  fast.  But  for  all 
that  they  certainly  did  look  quite  fierce,  and  Mary 
was  not  to  be  blamed  for  being  afraid  of  them 
before  she  understood  them.  While  they  were 
surely  big  for  worms,  they  were  rather  small  for 
dragons. 

The  largest  of  the  three  was  nearly  four  inches 
long.  Its  body  was  big  and  fat.  It  was  a  bright 
green  with  seven  white  stripes  running  obliquely  on 
its  side.  There  was  a  brightly  colored  spot  on  each 
breathing  hole  or  spiracle.  The  color  was  so 
much  like  the  tomato  leaves,  that  it  is  no  wonder 
we  did  not  see  the  worms  at  first.  It  was  quite 
true  what  Mary  had  said;  each  one  had  a  large 
horn  rising  from  its  tail.  It  was  sharp  and  looked 
as  if  it  might  be  a  big  sting.  Some  people  think 
that  the  worm  does  use  it  as  a  sting,  and  that  it 
is  very  poisonous.  But  that  is  a  great  mistake. 
It  is  harmless  and  the  caterpillar  does  not  seem  to 
use  the  horn  for  anything  at  all. 

When  we  shook  the  vine  or  touched  the  worms, 
they  did  as  Mary  had  said.  They  raised  their  heads 
and  front  part  of  the  body,  high,  shook  their  bodies 
and  made  a  little  snapping  noise  with  their  jaws. 


THE    TOMATO-WORM  123 

They  acted  as  if  they  were  trying  to  frighten  you 
away.  But  when  you  know  that  they  will  not, 
and  can  not,  do  you  any  harm,  you  feel  like  laugh- 
ing at  their  pretending.  Whenever  they  quieted 
down  the  children  thought  it  great  fun  to  stir 
them  up  again. 

The  next  question  was  where  did  these  monster 
caterpillars  come  from?  And  as  we  had  learned 
from  the  silkworm  and  the  milkweed  caterpillars 
that  caterpillars  in  time  change  to  either  moths  or 
butterflies,  the  children  were  anxious  to  find  out 
what  the  tomato-worm  would  change  into. 

Tom  made  a  cage  like  the  one  we  had  put  the 
milkweed  caterpillars  in.  I  suggested  that  he 
put  three  or  four  inches  of  moist  dirt  in  the  bottom, 
for  this  kind  of  caterpillar  would  need  it  later.  So 
the  three  were  taken  to  their  new  home  and  every 
day  were  given  fresh  tomato  stems  with  leaves  on 
them. 

These  caterpillars  were  full  grown  so  we  did  not 
have  to  feed  them  many  days  before  they  showed 
signs  that  they  had  eaten  tomato  leaves  long 
enough  and  that  their  caterpillar  days  were  about 
over. 

They  crawled  down  from  the  tomato  stems  and 
began  to  dig  holes  in  the  earth  and  soon  buried 
themselves  out  of  sight.  "Well,"  said  Bessie, 
"that  is  a  strange  thing  for  a  caterpillar  to  do.  I 
think  it  much  nicer  to  spin  a  cocoon  like  the  silk- 
worm or  hang  up  a  beautiful  chrysalis  in  a  hidden 
place  like  a  milkweed  caterpillar."  They  did  not 


124 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


like  the  idea  of  "not  seeing  what  was  going  on. 
They  wanted  to  know  how  long  they  would  have 
to  wait  to  see  what  would  come  out  of  the  ground. 
They  were  much  disappointed  when  told  they 
would  have  to  wait  till  the  next  spring.  Then  they 
put  the  cage  away  in  a  safe  place  for  the  long  delay. 
Two  or  three  weeks  after  this,  Tom  said  to  us, 
"Couldn't  we  dig  down  just  to  see 
what  has  happened  to  one  of  those 
tomato-worms?  We  can  put  back 
what  we  find  just  the  same  as  we 
find  it  and  maybe  it  will  be  all 
right  for  next  spring." 

That  seemed  to  be  a  very  good 
idea. 

So  out  came  the  cage  and  he  very 
carefully  dug  down,  where  one  of 
the  caterpillars  had  hidden.  And 
this  is  what  he  found  buried  in  the 
dirt.  A  little  brown  jug,  something 
more  than  two  inches  long,  with  a 
handle  on  one  side.  When  looked  at  more  closely 
the  little  jug  was  seen  plainly  to  be  a  sort  of 
chrysalis.  Through  the  hard  brown  skin  you 
could  see  the  divisions  of  the  body  at  the  tail 
end.  Then  at  the  head  end  were  the  parts  that  are 
to  be  wings  and  eyes  and  the  jug  handle  was  to  be 
the  tongue.  This  brown  chrysalis  showed  itself 
to  be  alive  by  a  slight  movement  of  the  tail  end 
whenever  it  was  touched. 

Well,  we  felt  well  repaid  in  seeing  this  curious 


FIG.  37.— 
Chrysalis  of  the 
humm  i  n  g  b  i  r  d 
moth. 


THE   TOMATO-WORM  125 

object.  While  it  was  not  a  beautiful  chrysalis  like 
that  of  the  milkweed  caterpillar,  still  it  was  a 
chrysalis  all  the  same. 

The  tomato- worm  had  learned  to  hide  its  chrysa- 
lis out  of  sight  and  where  it  would  be  protected 
from  the  cold  of  the  winter.  Tom  put  it  back  very 
carefully  and  the  children  were  now  more  contented 
to  wait  for  the  outcome  of  this  homely  but  interest- 
ing chrysalis. 


THE  HUMMING-BIRD  MOTH 


A  few  evenings  later  we  were  sitting  on  the  steps 
of  the  porch  looking  over  the  garden.  The  sun  had 
set  and  it  was  just  becoming  dusk.  We  were 
watching  the  big  yellow  evening  primroses  popping 
out.  As  a  new  one  would  flash  out  its  golden 


FIG.  38. — The  humming-bird  moth. 

petals,  one  of  the  children  would  shout  "  There's 
one,"  and  "There  went  two,"  and  " There's 
another."  They  were  opening  so  fast  we  could 
hardly  keep  count.  "  There's  a  humming-bird," 
called  out  Bessie.  Tom  said  "Why,  how's  that? 
I  thought  humming-birds  did  not  come  around 
this  late  in  the  evening."  Well  of  course  this  was 
something  that  needed  looking  into.  So  we 

126 


THE    HUMMING-BIRD    MOTH  127 

quietly  slipped  along  the  flower  beds  to  get  a  good 
look  at  whatever  it  was,  whirling  so  rapidly  up  and 
down  and  around  among  the  flowers.  It  cer- 
tainly acted  just  like  a  humming-bird  and  seemed 
about  as  big.  But  as  it  whizzed  past  close  enough 
to  be  seen  better,  it  was  shown  to  be  no  humming- 
bird but  a  magnificent  big  moth. 

It  flew  by  like  a  shot  until  it  stopped  at  a  flower 
to  get  nectar.  Then  it  did  not  alight  on  the 
flower  as  butterflies  do,  but  hovered  in  front  of  it 
with  rapidly  whirring  wings,  just  as  a  humming- 
bird does.  It  very  quickly  unrolled  a  wonderfully 
long  tongue,  which  quivering  with  vibration,  was 
thrust,  like  a  dark  streak,  down  the  tube  of  the 
primrose  to  pump  out  the  syrup.  Then,  in  an 
instant,  the  moth  whirred  to  another  flower  and 
then  to  another.  That  tongue  was  surely  a 
marvel.  It  must  have  been  all  of  four  inches 
long  and  it  managed  it  with  a  quickness  and  skill 
that  astonished  us. 

That  tongue  could  reach  the  bottom  of  the 
flowers  that  have  deep  tubes  in  them  and  the 
moth  still  remain  far  enough  away  to  hover  with 
whirring  wings  in  front  of  the  flowers  without 
touching  them.  It  tried  our  honeysuckles  and 
primroses  in  the  flower  beds  and  visited  the 
"jimson"  weeds  along  the  road.  It  got  its  sweet 
drink  in  the  same  way  that  children  suck  up 
icecream  soda  with  a  long  straw  out  of  a  deep 
glass.  More  than  one  came  to  our  garden  that 
evening,  and  we  tried  to  catch  one.  But  they  took 


128  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

fright  so  easily  and  flew  so  rapidly  and  with  such 
great  strength,  that  it  was  only  after  hard  work 
that  we  finally  caught  one. 

It  struggled  with  such  great  strength,  much 
greater  than  we  ever  felt  with  any  other  butterfly 
or  moth  in  our  hands,  that  after  a  good  look  we  let 
it  go.  We  were  somewhat  ashamed  to  find  that 
quite  a  bit  of  its  beautiful  scale  dust,  was  left  in  our 
fingers,  but  it  flew  off  so  rapidly  that  it  did  not 
appear  to  be  hurt.  We  hope  not. 

Now  I  thought  it  time  to  tell  the  children  that 
this  marvel  of  "a  moth  is  called  the  humming-bird 
moth.  They  agreed  that  that  is  a  good  name  for  it. 
Then,  as  a  surprise  for  them,  I  could  say  further 
that  the  humming-bird  moth  came  from  the  very 
same  kind  of  caterpillar  that  they  had  found  on  the 
tomato  vine.  And  that  next  spring  they  would 
have  three  like  this  splendid  moth  all  their  own. 
They  then  went  to  see  if  the  cage  in  which 
the  chrysalides  were  buried  was  all  right  and  they 
looked  on  it  with  the  tenderest  care. 

And  now  again  we  had  the  same  cause  for  wonder 
as  with  the  other  caterpillars  we  have  watched. 
How  could  such  a  big  fat  fierce  looking  caterpillar, 
gorging  itself  on  tomato  leaves,  turn  into  such 
a  fine  large  creature,  clothed  with  the  softest  coat 
possible,  painted  with  the  most  delicate  shades  of 
colors,  furnished  with  fine  big  eyes  and  with  such  a 
marvelous  tongue,  that  can  reach  and  sip  the 
sweet  nectar  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  long 
shaped  flowers,  and,  most  wonderful  of  all, 


THE    HUMMING-BIRD    MOTH  129 

move  with  an  especially  swift,  strong  and  true 
flight?  Surely  no  one  looking  at  the  big  green 
tomato  worm,  and  then  at  this  moth  among  the 
flowers,  could  ever  imagine  that  one  animal  could 
change  to  another  so  very  different. 

The  fine  beauty  and  strong  flight  of  the 
humming-bird  moth,  stirred  up  our  interest  in  it 
enough  to  make  us  try  to  find  out  more  about  it. 
It  was  our  good  fortune  to  have  a  friend  who  has  a 
collection  of  moths.  There,  amongst  them  was 
our  beauty  of  the  garden.  We  could  examine  more 
closely  its  size  and  color.  The  largest  one  meas- 
ured from  tip  to  tip  of  the  fore  wings  five  inches. 
The  colors  were  not  brilliant  as  in  some  butterflies, 
but  were  of  the  most  beautiful  shades  of  gray  and 
black,  most  delicately  arranged.  Across  the  back 
wings  were  some  wavy  black  lines.  The  body  was 
gray  and  on  each  side  was  a  row  of  five  yellow 
spots.  For  this  reason,  it  is  sometimes  called 
the  five  spotted  Sphynx.  It  is  also  sometimes 
called  the  tomato  Sphynx. 

In  the  collection  were  other  moths  that  might  be 
cousins  since  they  are  somewhat  like  our  moth. 
We  learned  that  our  moth  with  its  cousins,  are 
called  Sphynx  moths,  or  sometimes  Hawk  moths. 
They  have  been  given  the  name  Sphynx  because 
their  caterpillars,  when  they  raise  their  bodies  and 
heads  and  look  solemn,  are  thought  to  look  like 
the  great  statue  near  the  pyramids  in  Egypt 
called  the  Sphynx.  They  are  called  Hawk  moths 
because  they  have,  such  strong  wings  and  splendid 


130  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

power  of  flight.  They  are  of  different  sizes. 
All  come  out  about  dusk  and  have  a  strong  rapid 
flight.  Some  of  them  are  even  more  .beautiful 
than  our  humming-bird  moth.  The  caterpillars 
of  the  different  kinds  are  usually  green  and  have  the 
habit  that  our  caterpillar  had,  of  raising  up  its  head 
and  looking  fierce.  They  feed  on  different  kinds 
of  plants.  Most  of  the  moths  are  not  as  large  as 
ours  was.  They  burrow  in  the  ground  to  make 
the  chrysalis.  We  may  find  some  of  these  others 
in  our  garden.  On  page  213  is  given  the  picture 
of  the  white  lined  Sphynx.  Its  caterpillar  feeds 
on  many  kinds  of  plants. 

When  we  talked  to  a  man  who  has  a  big  garden 
of  vegetables  and  flowers  about  our  tomato- 
worms  and  humming-bird  moths,  he  was  interested 
but  he  was  somewhat  perplexed  as  to  what  to  do, 
now  that  he  had  learned  that  they  were  the  same 
animal.  He  said  that  the  tomato-worms  were  such 
big  greedy  things  that  it  did  not  take  them  long 
to  eat  up  a  whole  plant.  That  sometimes  they 
came  in  such  great  numbers  as  to  destroy  a  big 
patch  of  tomatoes.  But  then  the  Sphynx  moths 
did  a  lot  of  good.  When  they  visit  flowers  and 
thrust  their  tongues  down  the  tubes,  they  carry 
the  pollen  from  one  to  another  and  this  is  very 
necessary.  For  without  pollen  the  flower  will  not 
make  its  seeds. 

Now  if  he  killed  the  worms  there  would  be  no 
humming-bird  moths.  If  he  did  not  kill  them 
the  moths  would  lay  eggs  in  the  tomato  vines 


THE    HUMMING-BIRD    MOTH  131 

which  would  hatch  into  tomato-worms.  So  there 
was  his  puzzle.  I  think  he  finally  killed  all  the 
tomato-worms  he  could  and  trusted  to  the  luck 
of  having  some  other  kinds  of  moths  carry  the 
pollen  about.  He  says  that  every  year  he  plows 
up  many  of  those  "jug  handle  chrysalis  things. " 
He  didn't  know  what  they  were  before.  He  has 
not  yet  decided  what  to  do  with  them. 

This  kind  of  caterpillar  also  feeds  on  potato  vines 
and  tobacco  plants.  For  this  reason  it  is  not 
liked  by  potato  and  tobacco  farmers  any  better. 

There  are  some  enemies  of  this  caterpillar  which 
help  the  farmer  to  kill  it.  They  are  the  kind  that 
destroy  the  milkweed  caterpillar.  You,  no  doubt, 
remember  that  we  told  you  about  its  sharp  piercing 
probe,  with  which  it  makes  a  hole  in  the  back  of  the 
poor  caterpillar  and  then  lays  its  eggs  deep  in  its 
body.  The  eggs  hatch  in  the  caterpillar's  body, 
and  the  larvae  eat  its  flesh,  and  then  at  the  right 
time  come  out  and  spin  their  little  cocoons  which 
they  fasten  to  the  skin  of  the  poor  caterpillar.  It 
is  no  pleasant  sight  to  see  the  caterpillar  carrying 
around  the  parasites  who  are  eating  the  life  out  of 
it,  and  are  ready  to  fly  away  as  the  poor  thing 
dies  from  their  cruelty.  These  insects  are  called 
Ichneumon  flies. 

Tomatoes  are  good  to  eat  and  we  do  not  wish  to 
do  without  them.  But  I  hope  that  when  the 
farmers  and  the  Ichneumon-flies  get  after  the 
tomato  worms  that  they  will  miss  a  good  number  of 
them,  so  that  the  beautiful  and  very  useful  hum 


132  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

ming-bird  moths  will  still  be  numerous  enough  to 
make  us  glad  and  help  out  the  flowers  in  their 
work.  At  any  rate  the  tomato-worm  learned  to 
eat  the  tomato  vine  ages  before  human  beings  found 
out  tomatoes  were  good  to  eat.  So  doesn't  it  have 
some  rights  about  tomato  plants? 


A  GENTLE  TIGER 

There  roams  in  the  forests  of  India  in  Asia,  a  big 
savage  cat-like  beast.  It  has  glaring  eyes,  great 
sharp  teeth  and  claws.  Its  body  is  tawny  or 
yellowish  with  black  stripes.  It  will  steal  out  at 
night  and  pounce  upon  and  carry  away  a  sheep, 
a  calf  or  a  man.  We  all  know  of  this  terrible 
animal  as  the  Tiger.  Men  have  caught  them  and 
put  them  in  strong,  iron  cages  and  brought  them  to 
this  country  to  show  in  the  circus  or  the  Zoo. 
Nearly  every  one  has  seen  this  fierce  animal  and 
admired  its  beautiful  coat.  Just  think  what  a 
terrible  thing  it  would  be  to  meet  it,  alone  in  the 
forest. 

In  the  country  where  it  lives,  no  one  would  dare 
to  take  a  walk  alone  through  the  Jungle. 

In  our  woods  we  have  a  Tiger  too.  But  it  is 
beautiful  and  harmless,  and  as  lovely  as  a  flower. 
It  is  the  big,  beautiful  butterfly  that  goes  by  the 
name  of  the  Tiger  swallow-tail.  It  gets  its  name 
because,  like  the  tiger  of  India,  it  is  yellow  with 
black  stripes.  And  that  is  the  only  thing  in  which 
they  are  alike.  The  fine  tiger  swallow-tail  draws 
or  attracts  you  to  the  woods,  instead  of  driving 
you  from  them. 

It  is  a  splendid  flier.  Its  great  wings  are  more 
than  four  inches  across.  Its  bright  yellow  color 

133 


134  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

and  its  lively  movements  make  it  appear  to  be 
very  happy.  It  seems  to  be  saying,  "  Isn't  this  a 
nice  place?"  as  it  floats  about  joyously  flapping  its 
great  wings. 

Its  large  size  and  bright  color  allow  you  to  see  it  a 
long  distance  away.     It  is  a  bright  spot  of  yellow, 


FIG.  39. — The  tiger  swallow-tail. 

now  moving  over  the  bushes,  next  high  among  the 
trees.  It  is  not  easy  to  catch  when  flying  about 
among  the  trees.  It  may  come  into  our  garden 
seeking  flowers.  It  is  very  fond  of  lilacs  and  when 
it  settles  down  on  a  blossom  to  sip  the  nectar  it  may 
easily  be  captured.  A  curious  thing  about  this 
beautiful  butterfly,  so  fond  of  lilacs,  a  thing  you 
would  hardly  believe  of  it,  is  that  it  will  also  alight 
on  badly  smelling  decaying  matter  and  take  a  sip. 


A   GENTLE   TIGER 


135 


If  you  can  get  one  to  remain  quiet,  you  can  then 
see  its  markings  better.  The  main  color  of  the 
wings  is  a  bright  yellow.  The  borders  are  black 
with  a  row  of  yellow  spots  in  them.  The  fore 
wings  have  each  four  black 
stripes  and  the  hind  wings  one 
black  stripe  across  them.  The 
edges  of  each  of  the  hind  wings 
are  scalloped  and  each  wing 
ends  in  a  sort  of  long  narrow 
piece  like  a  tail.  These  give 
the  name  swallow-tail  to  this 
butterfly. 

There  are  other  kinds  of 
butterflies  that  have  their  hind 
wings  end  in  tails  in  this  way. 
This  group  is  called  the  swallow- 
tailed  family.  There  are  some 
other  very  large  and  beautiful 
swallow-tails  beside  the  Tiger 
Swallow-tail. 

Since  we  have  learned  that 
all  butterflies  come  from  cater-      FIG.  40.— The  cater- 
pillars, it  would  be  interesting  Pillar  ?f  the  tiger  SW&1- 
to  learn  what  kind  of  cater- 
pillar makes  the  Tiger  swallow-tail. 

In  the  first  place,  its  caterpillar  is  not  so 
particular  about  what  kind  of  leaves  it  eats 
as  some  caterpillars  are.  It  does  well  on  the 
leaves  of  many  different  kinds  of  trees  or  bushes. 
So  the  tiger  may  lay  her  eggs  on  fruit  trees 


136  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

or  the  wild  cherry,  among  many  other  kinds 
of  trees. 

When  the  caterpillar  of  this  butterfly  is  fully 
grown,  it  is  odd  looking  and  certainly  not  beauti- 
ful, Just  behind  its  head  the  body  is  very  thick. 
This  makes  a  sort  of  hump.  On  the  top  of  the 
hump  are  two  yellow  spots  that  look  like  two  large 
staring  eyes.  They  are  not  eyes  but  only  colored 
spots  on  the  skin,  as  if  false  eyes  were  painted 
there.  Just  behind  the  hump  is  a  white  band  that 
helps  to  make  it  look  threatening.  Then  to  help  the 
fierceness  of  the  look  more  than  ever,  it  has  two 
yellowish  colored  horns  which,  when  it  is  disturbed,  it 
brings  out  from  a  hidden  place  just  behind  the  head 
and  waves  back  and  forth.  Indeed  it  looks  as  if  this 
caterpillar  was  made  up  as  a  scarecrow.  To 
make  things  more  disagreeable,  the  horns  give  out 
a  very  bad  odor  when  they  are  waving.  It  is 
thought  that  all  this  display  is  to  keep  birds  and 
other  enemies  away.  And  it  is  true  that  this 
caterpillar  is  not  troubled  by  birds  as  much  as  some 
kinds  are.  Here  is  a  case  where  it  pays  to  be  ugly. 

This  caterpillar  knows  how  to  make  a  very 
comfortable  and  curious  sort  of  hammock  to  rest  in 
when  it  gets  tired  of  eating.  It  finds  a  good  leaf 
and  spins  a  quilt  of  silk  and  fastens  the  edges  of  it 
to  the  opposite  sides  of  the  leaf.  The  quilt  is  in 
this  way  stretched  tight  and  makes  a  fine  place 
to  lie  on.  The  painted  face  seems  to  glare  at  you 
and  say,  "Don't  dare  step  on  me  if  you  know  what 
is  good  for  you." 


A    GENTLE    TIGER  137 

We  have  seen  that  the  silk-worm  spins  a  cocoon. 
That  the  milkweed  caterpillar  makes  a  beautiful 
case  for  a  chrysalis.  That  the  tomato-worm 
buries  itself  in  the  ground  to  form  its  chrysalis. 
The  caterpillar  of  the  Tiger  swallow-tail  has  a  still 
different  way.  When  it  comes  time  for  it  to  form 
a  chrysalis  it  crawls  away  to  a  place  of  safety. 
Like  the  milkweed  caterpillar  it  spins  a  button  of 
silk  and  glues  it  fast  to  a  support.  It  fastens  the 
hooks  of  its  hindmost  pair  of  feet  in  the  button. 
While  it  hangs  from  this,  it  spins  a  band  of  silk 
fastened  at  each  end  to  the  support.  The  band  is 
about  at  the  middle  part  of  its  body.  It  then 
manages  to  get  its  head  through  the  loop  of  the 
band.  It  then  rests  its  body  in  the  loop  as  if  it 
were  a  little  swing.  This  silk  loop  holds  the  cater- 
pillar while  it  is  shedding  its  skin  to  become  a 
chrysalis  and  while  the  chrysalis  fastens  its  rod  of 
hooks  in  the  silk  button.  The  silk  band  and  but- 
ton hold  the  chrysalis  till  the  butterfly  comes  out. 
Many  other  kinds  of  caterpillars  spin  a  silk  loop 
to  hold  up  the  chrysalis  in  this  way. 

If  you  could  have  the  good  luck  to  find  a  chrysa- 
lis or  rear  one  from  a  caterpillar,  you  would  see  a 
fine  sight  in  the  coming  out  of  the  new  tiger 
swallow-tail  from  the  narrow  walls  of  the  chrysalis. 
Like  all  butterflies  it  is  at  first  very  damp  and  weak. 
Its  wings  are  small,  thick  and  wet.  But  soon  they 
stretch  out  to  their  full  size  and  color  and  the 
tiger  is  ready  for  its  happy  life. 

Tiger  swallow  tails  are  found  in  most  parts  of  the 


138 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


United  States,  so  wherever  your  home  is,  in  this 
country  you  are  pretty  sure  to  find  it.  There  are  a 
number  of  butterflies  that  belong  to  the  swallow- 
tail family.  The  largest  one  is  the  Giant  swallow- 
tail which  may  grow  to  be  as  much  as  five  and 
one  half  inches  across.  It  is  the  largest  butterfly 
known  in  North  America.  It  is  mainly  found  in 


FIG.  41. — Chrysalis  of  tiger  swallpw-tail. 

the  Southern  States.  Its  caterpillar  likes  orange 
and  lemon  trees.  Another  fine  large  one  is  the 
Black  swallow-tail.  It  is  found  in  every  state  of 
the  Union .  Its  caterpillar  is  always  found  on  plants 
of  the  parsley  family,  such  as  carrot,  celery,  cara- 
way and  parsley. 

The  swallow-tails  are  so  beautiful  that  lovers  of 
butterflies  are  always  on  the  lookout  for  them. 
They  have  a  large  place  in  the  collections  in  the 
museums,  and  the  libraries  have  many  books  with 
beautiful  pictures  of  butterflies  found  in  many 
countries  beside  our  own. 


EGGS  ON  POLES 

\  jjgj 

On  a  warm  summer's  day,  I  sought  the  shade 
of  a  cozy  corner  in  the  garden.  In  this  cool  nook, 
a  seat  had  been  placed  where  the  lover  of  out-door 
life  could  enjoy  not  only  the  charming  fragrance 
of  the  flowers,  but  the  sturdy  growth  of  the  garden 
food  plants  and  the  busy  life  of  the  thousands  of 
insects  that  rushed  about  their  work,  as  if  the 
garden  was  made  for  their  especial  uses  and 
belonged  to  them. 

Footsteps  crushing  the  gravel  on  the  walk  and 
lively  voices,  foretold  that  the  children  were 
coming,  and  in  a  hurry.  They  had  found  a  leaf, 
on  the  upperside  of  which  was  what  seemed  to  be  a 
strange  kind  of  growth.  This  growth  was  a  group 
of  about  a  dozen  very  delicate  white  stalks  half 
an  inch  high.  On  the  top  of  each  stalk  was  a  tiny 
white  body,  looking  like  a  little  pearl. 

The  children  wished  to  know  if  it  were  some 
kind  of  mould.  Or  might  it  be  some  kind  of 
tiny  mushroom.  Whatever  it  was,  it  was  cer- 
tainly a  very  dainty  thing  to  look  at  and  a  mystery 
worth  investigating.  It  so  happened  that  I  had 
been  wishing  to  find  this  very  thing  to  show  the 
children  as  another  one  of  the  strange  and  curious 
ways  of  insects. 

They  were  highly  pleased  on  learning  that  this 

139 


140 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


tiny  forest  of  little  pearls,  was  a  group  of  the 
eggs  of  a  very  beautiful  little  insect  that  had 
the  charming  name  of  Golden  Eyes.  This  little 


FIG.  42. — Eggs  on  stems  laid  by  the  lacewinged  fly  are  on  the  top 
leaf.  They  hatch  into  Aphis-lions.  A  grown  one  is  on  the  leaf  at  the 
lower  right.  This  forms  the  little  round  cocoon  on  the  leaf  next  to  it 
out  of  which  in  time  will  come  a  lacewinged  fly. 

animal  was  not  only  beautiful  but  wise. 

Now,  many  kinds  of  insects  lay  their  eggs  on  the 
leaves,  stems  or  bark  of  plants.  Most  of  them 
glue  the  eggs  right  down  flat  on  the  surface. 


EGGS   ON    POLES  141 

There  are  many  other  kinds  of  insects  that  think  as 
highly  of  these  little  eggs  for  food  as  we  do  of  hen's 
eggs. 

So  they  go  egg  hunting  all  over  the  plants,  very 
carefully  searching  every  leaf  and  every  crack  and 
corner  of  stem  and  bark.  But  Golden  Eyes  is  up 
to  all  their  tricks  and  does  one  of  her  own  that  they 
do  not  know  about. 

She  spins  a  very  delicate  white  silk  thread-like 
rod  or  stem,  about  half  an  inch  long  and  places 
her  pearly  white  egg  on  top  of  it.  The  stem, 
although  very  fine  and  thin,  is  quite  firm  and  strong 
and  holds  the  egg  very  securely,  high  above  the 
heads  of  the  egg  hunters.  She  erects  about  a 
dozen  poles  in  a  group.  The  insect  egg-eaters  do 
not  seem  to  have  very  good  eyes.  At  any  rate, 
they  are  not  clever  enough  to  look  up,  but  go 
nosing  around  on  the  surface  of  the  leaf  and  even 
right  among  the  silken  poles  and  miss  the  little 
pearls  on  the  top  of  the  poles.  Some  people  are 
that  way.  They  miss  many  fine  things  by  keeping 
their  eyes  always  on  the  ground  instead  of  looking 
up  once  in  a  while. 

Well,  of  course,  the  next  thing  to  do  was  to  give 
the  children  a  sight  of  Golden  Eyes.  That  would 
be  easy,  as  the  little  beauty  was  rather  common  and 
sure  to  be  found  somewhere  among  the  plants. 

They  were  told  that  she  was  also  known  by 
another  name,  the  Lace-winged  Fly.  Well,  either 
name  showed  that  the  animal  must  be  worth  seeing. 
So  we  began  a  journey  around  the  garden  world, 


142 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


searching  for  a  being  with  golden  eyes  and  lace 
wings. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  spied  one  perched  upon 
the  leaf  of  a  lilac  bush,  and  called  the  children, 
who  lost  no  time  in  coming  to  where  I  was.  "Go 
.slowly/'  said  I  "and  be  perfectly  quiet  or  she 


FIG.  43. — Lace-winged  fly. 

will  get  her  golden  eye  on  you,  then  spread  her 
lace  wings  and  bid  you  good  bye.  We  wish  to  have 
a  good  look  at  her  first. "  Well,  there  she  was  in 
plain  view  and  her  beauty  was  no  disappointment. 
She  is  a  small  person,  about  one  half  inch  long. 

The  body  is  a  light  green,  the  feelers  (antennae) 
are  very  long  and  slender.  The  eyes  are  well 
named  golden.  They  are  bright  as  polished  gold. 
Her  large  wings  are  of  the  most  delicate  lace-like 


EGGS   ON   POLES  143 

pattern,  and  finer  than  any  made  by  the  best  lace 
makers.  They  are  of  a  beautiful  shade  of  green 
and  almost  transparent,  and  as  they  move  show 
tints  of  rainbow  colors.  The  whole  insect  is  most 
daintily  formed  and  may  well  claim  to  be  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  insect  world. 

"01  isn't  she  a  darling,"  cried  Bessie.  "Let 
me  hold  her  in  my  hand."  "  Just  wait"  said  Tom, 
"I'll  catch  it  for  you."  So  just  as  Golden  Eyes 
made  a  start  to  fly,  Tom  grabbed  her  with  his  hand. 

"Phew!  what  do  you  know  about  that?"  ex- 
claimed Tom  and  added  with  some  vigor, "  The  little 
skunk"  And  that,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  about  the 
correct  word  for  her.  For,  among  insects,  she  holds 
a  place  similar  to  that  of  the  skunk  among  the 
larger  animals.  When  caught  she  throws  out  a 
very  disagreeable  odor.  Bessie  ran  to  Tom  with 
her  handkerchief  to  wipe  the  smell  off  his  hands. 
But  it  only  made  the  handkerchief  have  a  bad 
odor  for  a  day  or  two,  and  it  couldn't  be  used  again 
till  it  was  washed. 

Tom  gladly  let  the  lady  with  charming  looks  and 
very  bad  manners,  spread  her  fairy  lace  wings  and 
fly  away  with  her  golden  eyes.  It  is  astonishing 
how  any  one  who  looks  so  nice,  could  turn  out  to  be 
so  disagreeable  when  you  come  to  know  her  better. 
But  we  must  not  blame  dainty  Lace- wing,  for 
since  she  cannot  bite  or  sting  like  some  other 
insects,  she  is  given  this  way  to  take  care  of  herself. 
To  her,  no  doubt,  Tom  looked  like  a  giant  with  big 
eyes  and  enormous  hands  which  seemed  ready  to 


144  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

crush  her  and  forever  spoil  her  exquisite  lace-like 
wings  by  crumpling  them  up. 

But  there  are  other  things  to  be  learned  of  the 
Lace- winged  Fly.  We  wished  to  find  out  what  the 
children  hatched  from  such  dainty  pearl-like 
eggs,  laid  by  such  a  charming  looking  mother, 
would  turn  out  to  be. 

Well,  this  is  their  story.  A  tiny  dark  colored 
insect  baby  comes  out  of  the  egg.  Its  first  work 
is  to  climb  down  its  silken  pole.  And  then  what? 
Eat,  eat,  every  insect  egg  it  can  find  and  catch 
every  little  insect  it  can  lay  hold  of,  slay  it  and 
suck  its  blood.  It  is  just  a  savage  little  beast. 
Why  it  would  even  eat  its  sister  eggs  if  they  had 
not  been  placed  up  on  poles. 

It  does  not  take  after  its  mother  in  good  looks. 
When  it  grows  big  enough  to  be  seen — well,  about 
half  an  inch  long,  you  find  it  has  a  rough,  homely 
body,  with  dark  yellow  and  reddish  color  marks. 
Its  mouth  is  armed  with  two  curved,  sharp  pointed, 
hooked  jaws,  that  come  together  like  pincers. 

With  these  pincers  it  seizes  any  insect  it  meets 
and  holds  it  until  it  sucks  out  its  blood.  It  is 
especially  fond  of  plant-lice  but  is  such  a  greedy 
creature  that  it  does  not  stop  at  plant  lice,  but  will 
seize  any  insect  it  meets  that  is  not  too  big  for  it. 
So  it  may  destroy  some  eggs  and  young  of  insects 
that  are  our  friends,  such  as  the  lady-bugs.  But  it 
is  such  a  good  plant-lice  killer  we  must  think  of  it 
as  our  friend  in  the  garden. 

Because  it  is  very  fond  of  plant-lice  gardeners 


EGGS   ON   POLES  145 

who  understand  it  are  very  glad  to  have  it  on  their 
plants.  But  many  have  not  learned  what  a  friend 
they  have  here.  People  who  have  studied  the 
savage  little  children  of  the  Lace- winged  Fly,  tell  of 
the  enormous  number  of  plant-lice  a  single  one  will 
eat  in  its  short  life.  Because  of  its  savage  work 
on  plant-lice,  it  is  called  the  Aphis-lion.  Aphis  is 
the  name  of  plant-lice.  Since  it  takes  only  the 
blood  of  its  prey  and  throws  the  body  away,  it 
takes  a  great  number  to  satisfy  its  hunger. 

After  about  two  weeks  of  vigorous  hunting  and 
slaying,  the  Aphis-lion  feels  a  change  coming  over 
it.  It  finds  a  comfortable  place  on  a  stem  or  leaf 
and  rolls  itself  into  a  small  ball.  It  then  spins  a 
small  round  cocoon  of  shining  pearly  white  about 
the  size  of  a  small  pea  and  then  waits  for  the  great 
change  that  is  to  come  to  it. 

Before  many  days  have  passed,  the  little  thing 
inside  of  the  pearl-like  cocoon  cuts  a  neat  round 
lid  in  the  top  and,  wonderful  to  tell,  first  there 
peers  out  a  pair  of  golden  eyes  and  then  follows 
the  dainty  green  body  and  beautiful  lace  wings. 
Our  little  lady,  Golden  Eyes,  elegantly  dressed 
just  out  of  a  bandbox,  is  now  ready  to  take  her 
flight  and  take  up  the  work  of  staking  out  poles, 
each  with  a  pearl  egg  on  top,  and  things  in  Lace- 
winged  Fly  life  are  beginning  over  again.  You 
must  agree  that  to  change  an  ugly  savage  Aphis- 
lion  into  an  elegant  Lace- winged  Fly,  is  as  wonder- 
ful as  turning  a  homely  caterpillar  into  a  beautiful 
butterfly. 


1U 


146  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

So  the  mystery  of  the  eggs  on  poles  was  solved 
and  we  have  here  a  great  friend.  Tom  now  only 
laughs  at  the  way  Golden  Eyes  tried  to  keep  him 
from  rumpling  up  her  wings. 

Now  when  the  children  find  any  more  eggs  on 
poles,  or  hatched-out  Aphis-lions,  they  bring 
them  in  and  place  them  on  rosebushes  and  plants 
that  are  infested  with  plant-lice.  They  have  for- 
given the  bad  manners  of  Golden  Eyes  and  still 
admire  her  dainty  beauty. 


THE  ANT-LION 

If  you  were  asked  to  name  the  most  savage  and 
frightful  animal  you  would  almost  surely  say  the 
lion.  Of  course  tigers  and  wolves  are  also  very 
terrible,  but  the  lion  is  so  large  and  strong  and  has 
such  great  claws  .and  teeth,  that  he  seems  more 
frightful  than  any  other  animal.  Then  he  has 


FIG.  44.T — Pit  of  the  ant-lion.  An  ant-lion  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  at  the  left.  The  jaws  of  one  are  rising  from  the  bottom  of 
the  pit. 

such  a  savage  look  with  his  great  mane  and  has 
such  a  fearful  roar,  that  he  strikes  terror  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  live  in  the  lion's  country. 

Around  us,  we  see  the  world  of  insects  crawling 
and  flying  about  hunting  their  food  on  the  ground, 
through  the  grass,  or  on  the  bark  and  leaves  of  the 
trees.  We  might  think  that  they  are  always 
happy  and  having  a  good  time.  But  when  we 
come  to  know  them  better  we  find  they  have  their 

147 


148  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

troubles  as  well  as  we.  It  gives  us  an  unpleasant 
feeling  to  find  that  many  of  them  are  as  savage  to 
other  insects  as  lions  are  to  antelopes,  deer  and 
men. 

One  is  so  fierce  towards  ants  and  other  small 
insects,  that  it  is  called  the  ant-lion.  It  is  not 
only  fierce  but  you  will  think  it  very  crafty 
because  it  digs  a  pit  to  trap  the  poor  ant  and  when 
it  catches  its  victim  it  pierces  its  body  and  sucks 
its  blood. 

The  pits  of  the  ant-lion  are  very  pretty  and  look 
very  innocent.  No  doubt  you  have  seen  them. 
If  not,  you  can  very  easily  find  .them  in  most 
parts  of  the  country. 

The  first  I  ever  saw,  were  in  the  woods  where  I 
used  to  ramble.  They  were  made  in  the  fine  dust 
that  came  from  a  log  that  had  been  rotting  a  long 
time.  They  may  be  found  in  sandy  places,  such 
as  may  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  cliffs.  They 
may  be  seen  under  houses  or  at  the  edge  of  sand 
banks.  Sometimes  there  are  a  number  of  them 
close  together. 

The  ant-lion  must  have  fine  dry  sand  or  dust, 
in  which  to  make  its  pit.  The  pits  are  round  at  the 
top  an  inch  or  two  in  diameter,  and  each  tapers 
down  to  a  point  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit.  That 
is,  the  pit  is  cone  shaped,  only  the  cone  is  upside 
down,  like  a  funnel.  The  sides  of  the  cone  are  as 
steep  as  the  fine  sand  will  allow. 

But  where  is  the  ant-lion?  When  I  was  a  child, 
when  we  found  some  ant-lion  pits,  we  would  bend 


THE    ANT-LION  149 

our  heads  close  down  over  them  and  cry  "Mooly 
up,  mooly  up,"  and  we  thought  sometimes  some- 
thing made  a  motion  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit. 
We  used  to  call  them  "  Mooly  ups."  Well  if  you 
look  closely,  you  do  not  need  to  shout  any  thing  to 
see  sticking  up  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit,  a  pair  of 
curved  pincers.  Those  pincers  belong  to  the  ant- 
lion  which  is  buried  in  the  sand  waiting  to  do  a 
savage  piece  of  work. 

This  is  how  it  uses  its 'pit.  Here  comes  an  ant 
hunting  for  food.  She  comes  to  the  edge  of  the  pit. 
The  sand  is  so  loose,  that  it  gives  way  under  her 
feet  and  down  she  slides.  When  she  tries  to 
climb  out,  the  fine  dry  sand  slides  her  further 
down.  If  she  almost  gets  to  the  top,  the  ant-lion 
from  the  bottom  of  the  pit  throws  piles  of  sand 
over  the  poor  ant  and  she  is  bound  in  time  to  slide 
down  to  the  bottom  of  the  pit  and  the  ugly  lion 
pierces  her  with  its  curved  pincers,  and  sucks  out 
her  blood.  When  the  ant's  body  is  sucked  dry  the 
ant-lion  throws  it  out  of  the  pit,  and  makes  ready 
for  another  victim. 

It  is  easy  to  dig  an  ant-lion  out  of  its  pit  and  have 
a  look  at  it.  It  is  not  a  pretty  thing  to  look  at. 
It  is  something  like  an  aphis-lion,  which  we 
learned  about  on  page  140,  but  it  is  larger  and  its 
body  is  thicker,  and  about  half  an  inch  long. 

It  is  grey  with  some  specks  on  it.  Its  body  is 
rough  and  has  little  bunches  of  short  hairs  on  it. 
The  most  striking  thing  about  it,  is  the  pair  of 
jaws  that  stand  out  from  the  head.  Each  has  a 


150  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

sharp,  curved  tip  meeting  the  other  and  the  inner 
side  of  each  is  furnished  with  a  row  of  sharp  teeth. 
They  are  pincers  that  no  insect  can  get  away  from. 
Through  the  sharp  curved  points,  it  sucks  out 
the  blood  of  its  victim. 

There  are  a  number  of  kinds  of  ant-lions.  They 
differ  somewhat  from  one  another  but  they  are  all 
much  the  same  as  here  described. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  sight  to  watch  the  ant- 
lion  make  its  pit-fall.  This  you  can  do  by  digging 


FIG.  45. — The  winged  adult  of  the  ant-lion. 

out  an  ant-lion  and  placing  it  on  some  dry  sand 
placed  in  a  box. 

It  first  marks  out  the  plan  of  the  pit  by  ploughing 
out  a  furrow  in  the  form  of  a  circle  which  is  to  be 
the  size  of  the  top  of  the  pit.  It  uses  its  body  for  a 
plough,  crawling  backwards.  It  next  ploughs  out 
a  circle  inside  of  this.  For  a  shovel,  it  uses  its 
head.  It  pulls  a  load  of  sand  on  the  top  of  its  head, 
with  its  fore  legs  and  then  with  a  quick  jerk, 
throws  the  sand  clear  out  of  its  pit. 

It  keeps  up  this  ploughing  and  shoveling  until  it 
has  a  beautiful  smooth  pit.  Then  it  buries  itself, 


THE   ANT-LIO N  151 

in  the  very  bottom,  leaving  in  sight  only  a  part 
of  the  terrible  pincer  jaws,  ready  to  seize  the  poor 
ant  that  slides  down  to  them. 

When  it  throws  sand  up  on  the  ant  as  it  tries  to 
crawl  out  it  uses  its  head  for  the  shovel  in  the 
same  way  as  when  digging  the  pit. 

We  have  seen  how  caterpillars  become  beautiful 
butterflies  and  how  the  homely  aphis-lion  changes 
into  the  beautiful  golden  eyes.  Well,  this  ugly 
ant-lion  makes  as  remarkable  a  change.  After  a 
life  of  hiding  in  the  sand  to  carry  on  its  murderous 
work,  it  becomes  quiet,  spins  a  cocoon  and  takes  a 
long  sleep,  still  buried  in  the  sand.  Then  it  comes 
out  a  large  slender  bodied  flying  insect,  with  large 
and  very  delicate  beautiful  wings.  It  looks  some- 
thing like  a  dragon  fly.  It  hides  among  the  limbs 
and  leaves  of  trees  and  plants.  Its  main  work  is  to 
find  a  good  sandy  place  m  which  to  lay  eggs,  which 
are  to  hatch  out  into  ant-lions. 

These,  if  they  are  in'a  good  place,  soon  begin  to 
make  their  pit-falls  and  the  children  of  the  beauti- 
ful lace-winged  insect,  become  the  homely  murderers 
of  innocent  ants. 


SOME  WAYS  OF  THE  DANDELION 

THE  CHILDREN  LEARN  SOME  OF  ITS  TRICKS 

Company  had  come.  Every  body  was  busy 
preparing  for  a  good  time.  The  most  important 
members  of  the  company  were  two  cousins  by  the 
names  of  John  and  Nancy.  This  visit  had  been 
long  wished  for  by  Tom  and  Bessie  and  now  they 
were  really  here.  Things  long  planned  for,  were 
actually  going  to  happen.  There  were  new  games 
to  be  tried.  There  were  to  be  picnics.  The 
hickory  nuts  in  Sleepy  Hollow  w^ere  to  be  gathered. 
The  Robber's  Cave  over  in  Miller's  Gulch  must  be 
explored. 

These  delightful  things  followed  one  another  in  a 
procession  of  beautiful  and  happy  days.  The 
bright  memory  pictures  of  the  good  times  are 
now  stored  away  where  they  can  be  taken  out  and 
enjoyed,  even  when  years  have  slipped  by. 

One  bright  morning,  the  children  were  sitting 
around  on  the  grass  under  a  tree,  planning  how  to 
spend  the  day,  for  the  visit  was  fast  coming  to  an 
end.  When  the  gardener,  passing  by  said,  "  Just 
look  what  the  dandelions  have  been  doing  while  I 
have  left  the  lawn  to  cart  you  little  people  around 
on  your  excursions."  The  children  looked  up  and 
glanced  over  the  lawn .  Sure  enough,  the  dandelions 
seemed  to  be  having  a  celebration.  All  over  the 

152 


SOME    WAYS   OF   THE    DANDELION  153 


FIG.  46.— The  dandelion. 


154  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

lawn,  they  were  holding  up  tall  round  stems 
bearing  aloft  the  soft  round  balls  that  everyone 
knows  so  well. 

The  children  jumped  up  and  ran  helter-skelter 
over  the  lawn,  each  one  grabbing  as  many  stalks 
with  the  balls  as  he  could.  Each  one  of  course 
trying  to  out  do  the  others  in  the  number  he  or  she 
could  gather.  Then  came  the  old  game  of  seeing 
who  could  blow  off  the  most  down  from  a  head  with 
a  single  breath.  As  you  might  well  know  they 
soon  began  blowing  the  down  into  one  another's 
faces,  with  much  dodging  and  laughter.  Then 
they  split  the  hollow  stems  to  see  them  curl  up  as 
dandelion  stems  know  how  to  do,  each  one  trying 
for  the  longest  curl.  These  the  girls  hung  over 
their  ears  and  shook  their  heads  to  make  these 
dandelion  curls  dance  in  a  lively  frolic,  in  the  way 
girls  know  how  to  manage  their  real  curls. 

The  gardener  enjoyed  seeing  the  romping,  but 
when  they  settled  down  a  little,  he  said  to  them, 
"The  dandelions  are  great  fun  to  you  children, 
but  I  can  tell  you  that  they  are  no  fun  to  me. 
Do  what  I  can,  I  can  not  get  rid  of  them."  "Why 
don't  you  dig  each  one  up,"  said  John.  "I  think 
that  would  finish  them." 

"Well,  that  has  been  done  more  than  once,  but 
they  soon  show  up  again,"  answered  the  gardener. 
He  went  on  to  say  "The  dandelion  is  a  very 
clever  little  plant  in  many  ways.  One  of  them  is 
the  way  it  plans  to  get  its  seeds  planted  far  and 
wide.  I  was  just  thinking  when  you  were  having 


SOME  WAYS  OF  THE  DANDELION        155 

your  fun  with  the  down  heads,  that  the  dandelions 
were  laughing  down  in  the  grass  at  the  way  you 
were  helping  them  out.  Bring  me  one  of  the  down 
heads,  and  let  me  show  you  the  dandelion's 
plan/' 

Nancy  was  quick  to  get  a  nice  big  one  on  which 
the  down  was  still  perfect.  The  gardener  took  the 
stalk,  and  taking  the  head  apart  carefully,  showed 
them  that  the  downy  part  was  made  up  of  a  large 
number  of  tiny  downy  heads.  Each  little  downy 
head  stood  on  a  very  slender  little  stalk  and  at  the 
bottom  of  this  is  a  very  small  seed.  The  tiny  seed 
is  really  the  passenger  of  a  beautiful  little  balloon. 
The  gardener  blew  a  crowd  of  the  little  balloons 
high  up  in  the  air.  A  good  breeze  that  was  blowing 
at  the  time,  carried  them  away  till  they  were  out  of 
sight. 

" There"  said  the  gardener,  "some  of  those  seeds 
may  land  on  the  lawns  in  the  next  town,  if  this  wind 
keeps  up.  Why,"  he  continued,  "who  knows  but 
that  some  of  the  dandelions  in  this  lawn  were 
planted  by  balloons  which  sailed  all  the  way  from 
those  growing  in  the  lawn  at  John's  and  Nancy's 
house,  fifty  miles  away.  For  with  a  high  wind  the 
dandelion-balloons  might  travel  very  much  farther 
than  that.  This  is  the  way  the  dandelion  plants 
its  seed  over  the  United  States  every  year."  The 
children  were  greatly  interested  and  rushed  out 
to  gather  heads  and  blow  the  down  up  in  the  air 
and  then  each  tried  to  guess  in  which  town  his 
balloons  would  land.  Not  knowing  geography 


156  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

very  well,  I  think  they  made  some  poor  guesses 
but  that  did  not  bother  them  very  much. 

Tom  got  to  thinking  about  those  balloons. 
He  wished  to  know  how  a  plant  could  build  a 
balloon  to  carry  seeds  so  perfectly.  The  gardener 
had  them  gather  some  downy  heads,  some  flowers 
and  some  flower  heads  just  opening.  They  sat 
down  on  the  grass  under  a  tree,  the  children  press- 
ing close  about  him. 

He  showed  them  first  that  the  yellow  flower  as 
we  call  it,  is  really  a  bunch  of  many  tiny  flowers 
crowded  closely  together.  If  one  of  these  tiny 
flowers  is  looked  at  by  itself,  it  is  a  pretty  flower 
with  all  the  flower  parts.  At  the  bottom  is  the 
part  that  is  to  become  the  seed.  Just  at  the  top 
of  this  is  a  very  small  bunch  of  fine  fuzz.  As  the 
seed  ripens,  a  thin  delicate  stem  stretches  up 
between  the  seed  and  the  fuzz.  The  fuzz  grows 
to  be  the  downy  top  of  the  balloon. 

In  this  way  the  bunch  of  tiny  flowers  makes  a 
group  of  little  balloons  ready  to  sail  away.  While 
the  balloons  are  growing,  the  big  hollow  stalk 
that  holds  the  whole  bunch,  rises  up  pretty  straight 
and  brings  the  bunch  of  balloons  higher  up  in  the 
air  ready  to  catch  the  breeze. 

The  children  Oh'd  and  Ah'd  to  find  that  such  a 
common  old  plant  as  the  dandelion  could  have  such 
wise  ways.  They  could  now  understand  how  it 
was  always  ready  to  turn  to  you  a  bright  golden, 
smiling  face,  no  matter  how  rudely  you  treated  it. 
For  it  knew  it  would  get  ahead  of  you  at  last. 


SOME    WAYS    OF   THE   DANDELION  157 

Bessie  said  that  she  was  glad  to  learn  that 
dandelions  were  smart  enough  to  beat  the  gar- 
deners. For  she  thought  the  bright  yellow  spots 
on  the  lawn  were  as  beautiful  as  the  green  grass. 
And  then  too  in  the  countries  where  they  have 
cold,  snowy  winters,  the  jolly  smile  of  the  dandelion 
is  the  first  flower  to  tell  you  Spring  has  come. 

The  gardener  laughed  and  said  that  he  still  had 
to  be  careful  and  not  let  the  dandelion  smile  too 
much  on  the  lawn,  or  Bessie's  mother  would  not 
smile  very  much  on  him.  John  asked  the  gardener 
if  it  would  not  stop  the  scattering  of  the  seeds  if  he 
would  run  the  lawn  mower  often  enough  to  cut 
off  all  the  flowers,  before  they  went  to  seed.  He 
thought  the  lawn  mower  might  even  get  the  buds 
before  they  had  blossomed.  "Come"  said  the 
gardener,  "let  me  show  some  more  of  the  artful 
ways  the  dandelion  has  of  taking  care  of  itself." 

He  then  showed  them  how  the  leaves  of  the  plant 
that  came  out  of  the  top  of  the  root,  turn  back  and 
lie  very  flat  against  the  ground,  so  that  the  lawn 
mower  would  pass  right  over  most  of  them. 
The  flower  buds  too,  lie  down  flat  much  as  the 
leaves  do,  to  dodge  the  lawn  mower  until  they 
are  ready  to  bloom  and  ripen  the  seeds.  Then  the 
flower  stems  grow  tall  and  straighten  up,  for  then 
they  do  not  care  who  knocks  them  over  for  that 
would  set  the  balloons  flying  any  way. 

Everybody  agreed  that  these  were  truly  wonder- 
ful ways  for  a  mere  plant  to  have.  But  the  gar- 
dener said  that  there  are  still  other  wonderful 


158  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

ways  that  this  common  plant  has.  Now  there  is 
the  flower,  that  is,  the  big  flower.  It  has  all  the 
little  flowers  in  it.  What  wise  ways  it  has! 

In  bright  sunshine,  when  it  is  very  important 
for  the  plant  that  bees  visit  it  to  get  the  pollen 
and  carry  it  from  flower  to  flower,  it  opens  wide. 
When  storms  arise  or  when  cold  night  comes  on, 
the  row  of  little  green  things  that  make  its  border, 
shuts  together  over  the  bunch  of  little  flowers, 
holding  them  tight  from  danger.  Then  when  the 
seeds  are  ripening  and  the  balloons  are  growing, 
this  green  border-row  closes  in  and  shuts  them  up 
securely,  so  that  they  don't  get  knocked  off  till 
all  is  ready.  Then  they  open  wide  and  let  the  head 
of  little  balloons  stand  up  to  be  blown  away. 

The  gardener  then  told  them  that  since  they 
now  know  something  of  the  ways  of  the  dandelion, 
they  think  it  wonderful.  But  that  every  other 
plant  has  ways  of  its  own  as  artful  as  those  of  the 
dandelion.  "They  have  just  got  to  have  them" 
he  said,  "or  they  could  not  keep  themselves  going 
on  the  earth.  Now  just  take  the  ways  of  getting 
themselves  planted.  You  think  the  dandelion 
has  a  wise  way.  So  it  has.  But  every  plant  has 
some  way  to  scatter  its  seeds,  and  some  of  the  ways 
they  practice  are  as  clever  or  even  more  so  than 
are  those  of  the  dandelion."  "Tell  us  about  them," 
cried  John.  "Yes  tell  us,"all  joined  in. 

The  gardener  thought  a  moment  and  then  said 
"I'll  teU  you  what  I'll  do.  I've  got  to  cut 
this  lawn  this  afternoon.  But  tomorrow  we'll 


SOME    WAYS    OF   THE    DANDELION  159 

\ 

take  a  tramp  into  the  fields  and  woods  and  I  will 
show  you  where  you  can  see  for  yourselves,  how 
some  other  plants  manage  to  sow  their  seeds/7 

" Hurrah!  That's  a  bargain/'  they  shouted  and 
all  joined  hands  and  danced  a  ring  around  the 
gardener.  He  grinned  and  looked  foolish  but 
you  could  see  he  was  pleased.  The  party  broke 
up,  he  to  work  on  the  lawn,  they  to  do  the  thousand 
and  one  things  that  happened  along  before  night. 
When  bed  time  came,  the  general  question  was, 
"What  do  you  suppose  we  will  find  tomorrow?" 


THE    BAND    OF    SEED    HUNTERS 

BALLOON  SEEDS 

A  chance  for  a  tramp  through  the  fields  and 
woods,  even  if  it  were  after  nothing  at  all  was 
always  hailed  with  joy.  There  was  no  trouble 
about  getting  up  early  and  down  to  breakfast  in 
good  time.  The  mothers  were  glad  to  have  the 
children  go  on  such  a  good  outing.  The  gardener 
had  no  trouble  in  getting  a  day  off  to  plant  seeds  of 
knowledge  in  the  children's  minds  instead  of 
pulling  up  weeds  in  the  garden.  There  was  a  fine 
lunch  put  up,  for  of  course  it  must  be  a  picnic  if 
you  go  to  the  woods.  A  good  number  of  little 
paper  bags  and  boxes  were  taken  along  to  put  the 
new  seeds  in.  Of  course  there  was  no  thought  of 
going  on  a  tramp  without  Gyp,  the  collie.  And 
you  may  be  sure  that  Gyp  never  for  a  moment 
thought  that  they  would  go  without  him.  So  with 
him  running  on  ahead,  the  gay  little  company 
marched  down  the  road. 

Soon  they  came  to  a  field  and  it  took  no  time  to 
scramble  over  the  fence.  "O  there's  a  bunch  of 
thistles.  Let's  see  what  they  do,"  some  one  called 
out.  There  were  quite  a  number  of  the  plants. 
Some  were  in  beautiful  bloom  and  some  had  already 
gone  to  seed.  The  bumblebees  were  crawling 
over  the  soft  flowers,  after  pollen  and  nectar. 

160 


THE   BAND    OF   SEED    HUNTERS  161 

The  plants  with  the  sharp  little  bayonets  that 
covered  stalk,  leaves  and  the  outer  parts  of  the 
flowers,  made  the  children  stand  back  a  bit. 
But  the  boys  got  some  sticks  and  smashed  down 
the  plants  and  burst  open  the  flowers. 

They  found  that  the  big  flower,  like  the  dande- 
lion, was  really  a  great  number  of  little  flowers 
crowded  together.  As  the  seeds  ripened,  each  one 
had  at  its  top  a  fuzzy  little  balloon,  like  the 
dandelion,  only  larger.  The  balloon  did  not  have  a 
stalk  between  it  and  the  seeds  as  in  the  dandelion, 
but  was  fastened  right  on 
top  of  the  seed.  When  the 
flower  had  gone  to  seed 
it  was  no  longer  colored 
but  was  changed  to  a  white 
fluffy  mass.  The  children 

£         J    AI_    A    j.1.  j'j  FlG-  47. — Thistle  seeds. 

found  that  they  did  not 

have  to  break  it  open,  as  it  was  easy  to  pull  out  a 
bunch  of  the  seeds  with  their  balloons  with  the 
thumb  and  finger.  When  thrown  up  in  the  breeze, 
they  would  go  sailing  away  out  of  sight.  The 
gardener  showed  them  that  the  seed  was  very 
easily  broken  away  from  the  balloon.  So  that  if 
the  balloon  bumped  against  a  tree  or  fence,  it  would 
be  pretty  sure  to  drop  the  seed  right  there.  A  fence 
corner  is  a  fine  place  for  a  thistle  to  grow  in,  for  it 
is  likely  to  be  missed  by  the  plow  or  hoe  in  that 
safe  place. 
They  gathered  some  of  the  seeds  with  balloons 

for  their  boxes.     They  found  some  other  kinds  of 

11 


162 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


thistles  that  day  and  all  of  them  had  about  the 
same  kind  of  an  airship  in  which  to  send  out  their 
seeds  to  bomb  the  fields  with.  It  was  easy  to  see 
how  hard  it  is  for  the  farmers  to  keep  down  the 
thistles  in  their  fields,  when  these  millions  of  seeds 
are  so  well  scattered  every  year  by  the  wind. 


FIG.  48. — Pod  and  seeds  of  milkweed. 

In  starting  out  again,  Bessie  shouted,  "I  see  a 
milkweed  with  some  pods  on  it.  I  remember  now 
that  it  has  some  very  fine  threads  on  its  seeds 
as  soft  as  silk.  Some  people  call  it  silkweed." 
So  the  milkweed  pods  were  next  gathered  and  the 
purse-like  pods  carefully  opened.  Nothing  could 
be  neater  than  the  beautiful  way  in  which  the 


THE  BAND    OF   SEED    HUNTERS  163 

thin,  flat  seeds  were  packed  in  the  pod,  one  over- 
lapping the  other.  Each  one  had  a  tuft  of  long 
hairs  as  fine  as  the  finest  silk.  The  long  silky 
hairs  were  laid  out  so  as  not  to  get  tangled  in  the 
least.  They  all  agreed  that  those  who  have  not 
seen  the  milkweed  seeds  in  the  pod  have  missed  a 
pretty  sight. 

When  they  took  the  ripe  seeds  out  and  threw 
them  up  into  the  air,  the  tuft  of  long  silky  hairs 
spread  out  into  a  finer  balloon  than  even  the 
dandelion  or  thistle  seeds  had.  The  children 
clapped  their  hands  as  the  glistening  balloons 
floated  gracefully  on  the  breeze. 

They  were  glad  to  hear  that  the  farmer  does  not 
think  the  milkweed  is  a  very  troublesome  weed 
like  the  thistle,  so  he  doesn't  care  if  it  does  plant 
itself  around  the  country. 

Nancy  spoke  up; "  O  yes,  I  remember  now  read- 
ing a  story  about  a  beautiful  butterfly  called  the 
Monarch.  But  it  is  sometimes  called  the  milk- 
weed butterfly,  because  it  lays  its  eggs  only  on 
milkweeds.  The  caterpillars  which  hatch  out 
from  its  eggs  will  eat  only  milkweed  leaves.  If  all 
the  milkweeds  were  to  die  there  would  be  no  more 
Monarch  butterflies. " 

"  Hurrah  for  the  milkweed,"  cried  the  children. 
"Long  may  her  seeds  wave  their  silky  hair!"  The 
gardener  laughed  and  said  Nancy  was  right  and 
that  if  they  had  not  already  as  much  as  they  could 
do  today  in  looking  for  seeds,  they  might  try  to 
find  some  milkweed  butterflies,  their  eggs  and 


164  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

caterpillars.     "But  we  can  leave  that  for  some 
other  day,"  he  added. 

Not  only  the  milkweed  balloons  but  the  interest- 
ing pods  went  into  the  boxes. 

SEEDS  THAT  STEAL  RIDES 

The  next  plant  that  stopped  them  was  a  group 
of  burdocks.  "0  here's  the  plant  that  made  so 
much  trouble  in  our  school  one  day,"  called  out 
Bessie.  "How  was  that?"  asked  the  gardener. 
"Well,"  replied  Bessie,  "a  boy  named  Clarence 
Joyce,  who  sat  just  behind  Mabel 
Sweetser  brought  a  lot  of  the  burs  to 
school  and  stuck  them  in  Mabel's  hair." 
"How  horrid!"  said  Nancy.  Then 
Bessie  told  how  Mabel  cried  and  went 
j  iu  home  and  what  an  awful  time  they  had 

Burdock  bur. 

getting  the  burs  out,  and  how  Clarence 
.was  sent  up  to  the  Principal,  and  how  he  came  back 
with  red  eyes,  but  would  never  tell  what  happened. 

The  gardener  asked  what  did  they  do  with  the 
burs  they  got  out  of  Mabel's  hair.  "Why,  I 
guess  they  just  threw  them  out  in  the  yard." 
"Then,"  said  the  gardener,  "you  see  how  the  bur- 
dock got  its  seeds  planted,  for  the  seeds  are  in  the 
bur."  "Oh,  I  see,"  said  Nancy,  "If  a  dog  or  a  fox 
should  come  along  and  the  burs  get  stuck  in  his 
hair,  they  could  take  a  ride  and  get  planted  in  an- 
other place."  "That's  just  it,"  said  the  gardener. 

"Let's  try  it  on  Gyp,"  called  out  Tom.  The 
girls  thought  that  that  would  be  too  bad,  but  the 


THE  BAND    OF   SEED   HUNTERS  165 

boys  promised  to  put  them  on  Gyp's  back  and 
tail  so  that  they  would  not  hurt  him  and  so  they 
placed  a  dozen  burs  on  his  back  and  tail.  Later 
in  the  day,  when  all  were  getting  out  the  lunch, 
Gyp  got  tired  of  being  a  bur  bearer  and  lay  down 
and  deliberately  picked  bur  after  bur  out  of  his  fur 
with  his  teeth.  "Look  at  Gyp  planting  burdocks," 
said  John. 

Well  before  they  left  the  burdock  patch,  Nancy 
showed  the  rest  how  to  make  bur  baskets.  The 
many  sharp  hooks  with  curved  ends  all  over  the 
surface  of  the  bur  made  it  easy  to  fasten  one  bur  to 
another.  In  this  way  they  made  baskets,  bowls 
and  other  forms,  as  their  fancy  suggested. 

As  they  went  on,  they  found  other  plants  with 
fuzzy  balloons  to  carry  away  their  seeds.  Some, 
like  the  wild  lettuce,  are  so  very  tiny  that  the 
wind  soon  carries  them  out  of  sight.  Some  are  not 
such  good  sailors  as  the  dandelion.  The  children 
then  gathered  several  seeds  whose  names  the 
gardener  did  not  know.  They  found  so  many  of 
the  ballooning  kind,  that  they  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  that  was  a  common  way  for  plants  to 
scatter  their  seeds  to  new  fields. 

The  gardener  called  them  over  to  see  a  big  weed 
which  he  called  a  tumble  weed.  He  explained 
that,  in  the  fall,  the  branches  of  the  plant  turned  in 
toward  the  center  so  as  to  make  a  big  loose  ball,  as 
much  as  two  feet  through.  Then  the  stem,  right 
at  the  ground,  would  rot  off  and  this  ball  was  ready 
to  be  rolled  by  the  wind  across  the' field.  He  said 


166  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

that  he  had  seen  the  balls  of  tumble  weeds  rolled 
along  by  the  wind  for  great  distances  on  the 
prairies,  where  the  land  w£s  for  long  distances 
flat  and  there  were  no  trees  to  stop  them.  If  a 
fence  or  barn  should  happen  to  be  in  their  way 
these  weeds  would  pile  up  high  against  it.  Of 
course  as  the  tumble  weed  bumped  along,  some 
seeds  would  be  shaken  out,  and  where  the  weed 
was  stopped  many  seeds  would  fall  down  when  the 
rains  came.  There  are  several  kinds  of  weeds  that 
act  this  way,  and  for  this  reason  they 
are  called  tumble  weeds.  Well,  the 
children  could  not  take  this  big  fellow 
into  their  boxes,  so  they  stored  it  away 
in  their  memories.  And  that  is  what 
they  had  to  do  with  some  other  things 

50  -A  they  saw  that  day* 
cockiebur.          Tom  was  looking  over  the  fence  into 

the  next  field  when  he  called  out  to  the 
gardener,  •"  What  is  the  matter  with  those  horses? 
Their  tails  look  like  clubs."  "  Well,  we  will  just  go 
over  and  see/'  replied  the  gardener.  "  I  know  those 
horses  and  they  are  all  very  gentle."  It  did  not 
take  long  to  find  out  what  made  the  nice  flowing 
tails  like  stiff  clubs.  They  were  full  of  what  the 
gardener  explained  were  cockleburs. 

The  gardener  caught  one  of  the  horses.  Not 
only  its  tail,  but  its  foretop  and  mane  were  matted 
with  the  ugly  burs.  The  horses  had  been  feeding 
down  in  the  bottoms  where  the  cockiebur  plants 
grew  in  great  numbers.  "It  will  be  many  a  day 


THE  BAND  OF  SEED  HUNTERS 


167 


before  the  poor  animals  will  get  rid  of  these 
pests/ ;  said  the  gardener,  "and  by  that  time  the 
burs,  which  are  the  seeds,  will  be  scattered  over 
long  distances.  No  wonder  the  cocklebur  is 
called  a  vile  weed."  The  children  went  down  to 
the  bottom  lands  to  see  the  plants  and  gather  some 
of  the  seeds  for  their  boxes.  The 
seeds  were  covered  with  strong, 
sharp  hooks  and  at  one  end  was 
a  larger,  stronger  pair  of  hooks, 
which  looked  like  the  jaws  of  a 
savage  insect. 

While  they  were  down  in  that 
part  of  the  field,  before  they 
knew  it,  their  stockings  and  even 
Gyp's  tail  got  covered  with  what 
the  gardener  called  Spanish 
needles.  These  were  slender 
brown  seeds  about  half  an  inch 
long.  On  one  end  were  two  sharp 
needles  with  barbs  on  them,  turned 
backward.  They  would  pierce 
clothing  easily  but  the  barbs 
would  hold  them  from  coming  out  easily.  "Dear 
me/'  said  Bessie,  "Let's,  get  out  of  this."  The 
gardener  chuckled  and  said  "Why  isn't  this  just 
what  you  came  out  for,  to  gather  seeds?"  "Well 
I've  gathered  enough  of  that  kind, "  she  replied.  "  I 
suppose  when  those  plants  saw  us  coming,  they 
thought  now's  our  chance  to  get  a  free  ride  and  a 
new  home." 


FIG.  51 . — Spanish 
needles.  Two  heads 
of  the  plant.  A  single 
seed  at  the  right 
slightly  enlarged  to 
show  the  barbs. 


168  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

Since  jt  was  getting  near  to  lunch  time,  they 
turned  toward  the  woods.  At  the  first  good  place 
they  came  to,  they  sat  down  and  picked  the 
Spanish  needles  off  of  their  clothing.  These  also 
were  saved  for  their  boxes.  The  gardener  told  of 
many  other  plants  that  furnished  their  seeds 
with  hooks  by  which  they  could  cling  to  the  fur  of 
passing  animals  and  get  carried,  sometimes  long 
distances  and  there  plant  themselves  in  new 
ground.  "You  will  see  more  of  that  kind  before 
the  day  is  over,"  he  said. 

WINGED  SEEDS 

While  they  were  busy  at  the  luncheon  under  a 
fine  tree,  a  breeze  shook  the  limbs  and  a  flock  of 


FIG.  52. — Maple  tree  seeds.  FIG.  53. — Winged  seeds  of 

the  elm. 

sailing  things  filled  the  air  above  them.  Some 
rattled  down  on  their  spread  out  dinner,  and  others 
were  carried  far  beyond.  "  Maple  tree  seeds," 
cried  some  one.  Up  they  jumped  and  each 
gathered  a  handful  before  sitting  down  again  to 


THE  BAND    OF   SEED   HUNTERS 


169 


finish  the  meal.  The  maple  seeds  were  old  friends, 
but  as  the  children  had  never  before  stopped  to 
examine  them  very  carefully,  the  morning's  work 
with  traveling  seeds  led  them  to  give  the  maple 
seeds  a  careful  study. 

The  seeds  were  in  p'airs.  It  was  very  easy  to  see 
for  what  use  the  beautifully 
shaped  wing  had  grown  out  from 
each  seed.  They  tried  throwing 
them  up  in  the  wind,  and  while 
some  would  reach  the  ground  but 
a  short  distance  away,  many, 
especially  if  the  pairs  were 


FIG.  54. — Linden  seeds 
with  sailing  wing. 


FIG.  55.— 
Winged  seeds  of 
ailanthus. 


FIG.     56.— 
Clematis  seed. 


broken  apart,  would  be  carried  quite  a  distance. 

The  gardener  explained  that  such  seeds  are 
called  winged  seeds.  He  showed  the  children  how 
the  seed  of  the  elm  has  a  wing  that  goes  all  around 
it,  a  flat,  circular  wing.  The  linden  or  basswood 
tree  hangs  its  seeds  from  a  dry  leaf -like  wing  that 


170  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

can  catch  the  wind  and  sail  a  short  way.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  winged  seeds  did  not  usually 
carry  so  far  as  the  balloon  seeds,  but  still  most  of 
them  managed  to  get  out  from  under  the  trees 
own  limbs,  where  they  would  have  a  chance  to 
grow.  What  the  children  found  of  these  were 
thought  to  be  fine  treasures  for  the  boxes. 

SLING  SEEDS 

After  luncheon  they  wandered  deeper  into  the 
woods.  Some  delicately  beautiful  flowers  growing 
in  a  moist,  shady  place  attracted  their  attention. 
The  gardener  said  that  here  was  a  chance  to  see 
a  plant  with  a  still  different  manner  of  sowing 
its  seeds.  There  were  both  flowers  and  pods  on 
the  plants.  The  gardener  chose  a  well  ripened 
pod  and  had  the  children  watch  closely  while  he 
gently  touched  it  with  his  finger.  The  pod  flew  all 
to  pieces,  scattering  its  seeds  in  every  direction.  The 
children  applauded  that  performance  vigorously 
and  then,  of  course,  each  one  wished  to  touch  a  pod. 
Fortunately  there  were  plenty  of  ripe  pods  to  give 
each  one  the  pleasure. 

"What's  the  name  of  this  flower ?"  asked  Nancy. 
"Well,  it  is  sometimes  called  Touchmenot.  An- 
other name  is  Impatiens,  because  it  is  thought 
to  be  impatient  and  does  not  wish  to  be  touched. 
But  the  truth  is  that  when  the  pods  are  ripe  it  is 
waiting  to  be  touched.  Its  trick  for  scattering 
seeds  lies  in  having  in  the  pods  little  springs,  which 
a  light  touch  releases  and  the  force  bursts  open 


THE  BAND    OF   SEED   HUNTERS  171 

the  pod  quite  suddenly  and  scatters  the  seeds 
about.  While  the  seeds  are  not  thrown  very  far, 
some  of  them  get  away  from  where  the  old  plant 
is  growing/7  He  then  told  them  that  many  other 
kinds  of  plants  had  interesting  ways  of  throwing 
their  seeds  about.  Indeed,  some  of  them  could 
fling  their  seeds  several  yards. 

By  the  time  the  children  were  tired  of  playing 
with  the  touchmenots,  it  was  time  to  turn  in  the 
direction  of  home.  When  they  reached  the  fence 
around  the  woods,  they  discovered  that  a  number 
of  rough  little  seeds  were  sticking  to  their  clothing. 
There  were  quite  a  lot  on  Gyp's  coat  too.  They 
had  gathered  without  knowing  it,  many  more  kinds 
of  seeds  that  were  looking  out  for  a  free  ride. 

They  appealed  to  their  guide,  the  gardener,  to 
tell  them  what  seeds  these  were  and  what  kind  of 
plants  they  came  from.  There  were  some  small 
round  ones,  known  as  beggar  lice,  which  were  seeds 
from  the  plant  called  hounds-tongue.  One  other 
kind  was  a  flattish  seed  from  the  tick-trefoil. 
These  seeds  were  covered  with  fine  little  hooks 
that  took  firm  hold  on  clothing  or  fur.  Bessie 
spoke  up;  "I  am  just  too  tired  to  pick  all  these 
things  off  now.  I  am  sure  I  can't  lose  them  so  I 
am  going  to  wait  till  we  get  home."  They  all 
agreed  with  her,  and  Gyp,  like  most  dogs,  didn't 
seem  to  care  a  jot  about  the  seeds  sticking  to  him. 

So  off  they  trudged,  feeling  that  a  fine  supper 
waited  for  them.  At  home  they  had  interesting 
stories  to  tell  and  precious  treasures  to  show.  The 


172  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

mothers  praised  them  but  insisted  that  all  those 
beggar  lice  and  other  stick-tights  should  be  cleaned 
off  their  clothing.  They  found  this  quite  a  hard 
task,  but  as  it  added  to  their  collection  of  seeds 
they  finished  it  faithfully. 

Nancy  said  that  she  was  going  to  take  her  seeds 
to  her  home  and  show  them  to  her  teacher.  All 
thought  that  a  good  idea,  for  then  the  school 
could  have  a  beginning  of  a  collection  of  travelling 
seeds.  The  other  children  could  find  more  kinds 
and  in  time  they  could  have  a  fine  show  of  seeds 
and  learn  a  lot  about  the  curious  ways  of  plants. 

Bessie's  mother  said  she  thought  it  very  fine  to 
go  out  and  see  how  plants  live.  "Now,"  she  said, 
"how  would  you  like  to  find  out  in  some  of  the 
books  about  plants,  how  some  of  them  do  in  foreign 
countries."  Suppose  all  of  you  go  to  the  town 
library  tomorrow  and  see  if  each  of  you  can  learn 
how  some  of  the  foreign  plants  scatter  their  seed, 
and  in  the  evening  we  will  meet  and  each  one  can  tell 
his  or  her  story." 

Bessie  said,  "I  know  the  lady  at  the  desk,  and  I 
am  sure  that  she  will  help  us  to  find  the  books." 
The  rest  of  the  children  hesitated  a  little,  fearing 
that  they  might  not  succeed.  As  the  gardener 
had  already  helped  them  much,  they  turned  to  see 
what  he  would  say.  He  told  them  he  thought  that 
he  could  give  them  the  names  of  some  plants  that 
would  be  interesting  to  look  up.  Thus  encouraged, 
they  began  to  think  it  a  good  plan. 

John  proposed  that  they  call  the  meeting  the 


THE  BAND    OF   SEED    HUNTERS  173 

"Seed  Story  Night.77  And  then  they  began  to 
form  their  plans  to  visit  the  public  library  the 
next  day. 

SEED  STORY  NIGHT 

The  children  had  an  active  time  in  the  library, 
looking  through  the  books  about  plants.  They 
ran  across  a  great  many  hard  words,  but  they  had 
good  help  and  by  evening  when  supper  was  over, 
each  was  ready  with  a  report  for  the  seed  story 
night. 

BESSIE'S  ACANTHUS 

Bessie  was  called  on  first.  She  told  of  a  great 
poet  whose  name  was  Goethe.  Besides  being  a 
great  poet,  he  was  very  fond  of  plants  and  spent 
much  time  in  studying  them.  Once  upon  a  time, 
he  was  traveling  in  Italy.  There  he  found  and 
gathered  some  pods  of  a  plant  called  Acanthus, 
which  grew  in  that  country.  He  put  them  away 
in  his  room  in  an  open  box.  One  night  he  heard  a 
crackling  noise.  There  followed  sounds  of  some- 
thing 'striking  the  wall  and  ceiling  of  his  room. 
This  puzzled  him  at  first.  Then  he  found  out 
that  it  was  the  pods  of  the  Acanthus  plant  that  had 
burst  and  thrown  the  seeds  out  with  great  force. 

Bessie  said  that  that  was  the  way  the  pods  of  the 
touchmenot  acted  but  the  Acanthus  was  much 
stronger  and  threw  the  seeds  farther.  She  learned 
that  plants  that  throw  the  seeds  about  are  said  to 
have  "sling  fruits.77  She  also  learned  another 


174  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

interesting  thing  about  the  Acanthus  and  that  is, 
that  in  ancient  times  the  sculptors  who  made 
the  beautiful  temples  in  Greece,  thought  the  leaf 
of  the  Acanthus  so  beautiful,  that  they  copied 
it  to  ornament  the  tops  of  the  marble  columns. 
Columns  ornamented  in  this  way  are  called  Cor- 
inthian columns. 

JOHN'S  COCOA-NUT  TREE 

John's  report  was  called  for  next.  He  told  of  a 
tree  that  lives  on  the  coral  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  This  tree  protects  its  seed  by  covering 
it  with  a  tough  husk  of  fiber,  which  serves  as  a 
kind  of  boat  to  carry  the  seed  over  the  sea,  so  that 
it  may  plant  itself  on  an  island  distant  from  its 
home.  It  is  the  cocoa-nut  tree.  Its  seed  is  the 
cocoa-nut  which  we  all  know  so  well.  But  when 
it  is  brought  to  this  country  the  boat  part  is  cut 
away.  He  had  some  pictures  which  showed  how 
it  looked  before  the  nut  was  taken  out  of  its  husk. 
The  outside  covering  is  quite  large  and  is  hard  and 
as  tough  as  leather.  It  will  keep  out  the  water. 
Between  the  outer  covering  and  the  nut  is  a  mass 
of  light  loose  strings  of  fiber,  that  holds  the  nut  in 
place. 

Many  of  the  cocoa-nut  trees  grow  just  at  the 
edge  of  the  water  and  when  the  nuts  with  their 
boat  covering,  fall  into  the  water,  they  can  float 
away,  and  some  of  them  may  be  thrown  by  the 
waves  upon  the  shores  of  another  island.  Cocoa- 


THE  BAND   OF  SEED    HUNTERS 


175 


FIG.  57. — Cocoanut  trees  in  the  Islands  of  the  South  Seas. 


176 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


nuts  with  their  coverings  on  are  sometimes  brought 
here  as  curiosities,  and  can  be  seen  in  museums  or 
once  in  a  while  in  the  market.  John  says  if  he 
ever  sees  one  in  a  store  he  is  going  to  get  it  for  his 
school. 


A  B 

FIG.  58. — A  cocoanut.     A,  A  nut  with  the  husk  on.     B,  Shows  the 
husk  cut  away  to  allow  the  nut  to  be  seen. 


NANCY'S  SEED  CARRYING  BIRDS 

Nancy  told  of  reading  of  some  of  the  ways 
birds  carry  seeds  about.  Some  plants,  like  cherry 
trees,  have  their  seeds  covered  with  a  nice  fruit 
that  birds  like  to  eat.  In  the  cherry  the  seed  is 
very  hard  so  that  birds  cannot  harm  it.  The  fruit, 
when  it  is  ripe,  is  bright  red  so  that  it  is  easily 
seen.  The  fruit  is  soft  and  sweet  and  very  good  to 
eat.  The  birds  carry  it  away  to  eat,  then  drop 
the  seed.  We  may  say  that  the  cherry  tree  hires 
birds  to  plant  its  seeds,  and  pays  them  with  a  nice 
feast  of  cherry  fruit. 

She  gave  another  interesting  way  by  which  the 
birds  help  the  plants.  There  are  many  kinds  of 
plants  that  live  in  water  or  just  at  the  edge  of 
streams,  ponds  or  lakes.  They  have  small  seeds 


THE   BAND    OF   SEED    HUNTERS 


177 


that  drop  down  into  the  mud.  Water  birds,  such 
as  wild  ducks,  geese  or  cranes  that  wade  about  in 
such  places,  get  the  mud  with  the  small  seeds  in  it 
stuck  fast  to  their  feet.  Something  may  frighten 
them,  and  they  fly  away  before  they  have  time 
to  wash  their  feet.  In  this  way  the  seeds  get 
carried  to  other  ponds,  sometimes  a  long  distance 
away.  It  is  said  that  a  number  of  plants  are 
scattered  abroad  by  birds  in  this  way. 

TOM'S  SQUIRTING  CUCUMBER 

Tom  had  learned  that  a  number  of  plants  had 
seeds  which,  when  ripe,  had  a  sticky  substance  on 


FIG.  59. — The  squirting  cucumber. 

them  that  would  hold  fast  to  the  fur  of  animals 
or  the  feathers  of  birds  which  touched  them  and  in 


12 


178  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

this  manner  get  carried  away.  But  the  strangest 
one  was  a  plant  called  the  " squirting  cucumber." 
This  is  a  sort  of  wild  cucumber  that  grows  in 
some  parts  of  Europe.  When  it  is  ripe  the  inside 
parts  turn  into  a  sticky  stuff,  which  is  packed  so 
tightly  inside  the  rind  that  the  cucumber  is  almost 
ready  to  burst.  If  an  animal  happens  to  pass  by 
and  touches  the  ripe  cucumber  the  stem  of  the 
cucumber  pulls  out  like  a  stopper  of  a  bottle. 
Then  the  sticky  stuff  with  the  seeds  shoots  out 
with  force  and  if  the  animal  should  be  in  the  way 
its  fur  will  be  spattered  with  the  mess.  The  poor 
animal  may  go  a  long  distance  before  it  has  a 
chance  to  stop  and  clean  its  coat  and  drop  the 
seeds. 


FLOWERS 

What  would  the  world  be  without  flowers? 
We  do  not  like  to  think  of  such  a  thing.  In 
countries  where  they  have  cold,  snowy  winters, 
the  flowers  disappear  for  a  few  months  and  the 
world  seems  to  frown.  When  spring  comes  and 
the  cold  winds  and  snow  are  changed  to  warm 
rains  and  bright  sunshine^  the  wild  flowers  of  the 
fields  and  woods  lift  up  their  cheery  faces  and  the 
world  seems  to  smile  again. 

The  children  are  then  just  wild  to  get  out  and 
find  the  first  wild  flowers  that  are  brave  enough  to 
stand  up  and  say  old  winter  has  gone  and  young 
spring  has  surely  come. 

What  is  the  first  wild  flower  to  come  in  the 
spring?  That  will  depend  on  what  part  of  the 
world  you  live  in.  In  the  New  England  states, 
the  children  will  find  certain  ones  they  know  well, 
which  are  different  from  those  that  the  children 
of  Indiana  or  Kansas  find. 

In  parts  of  Georgia  or  California,  it  would  be 
hard  to  tell  just  which  flower  is  the  first  to  come  in 
the  spring,  because  the  winter  is  not  severe,  so 
that  some  flowers  may  be  found  blooming  at  any 
time.  You  cannot  say  just  exactly  when  the 
winter  goes  and  the  spring  begins.  But  even  in 
California,  when  the  spring  months  come  and 

179 


180  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

the  ground  is  well  soaked  with  water  and  the  air  is 
warmer,  the  flowers  come  in  greater  numbers  than 
at  any  other  time  of  the  year. 

In  some  of  the  parts  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico, 
where  it  is  very  dry  most  of  the  year,  you  might 
think  if  you  were  traveling  over  the  country,  that 
certainly  no  flowers  ever  bloomed  here.  But  even 
here  where  the  few  rains  of  the  whole  year  come  in 
summer,  the  most  beautiful  flowers  spring  up  from 
their  hiding  places  and  bloom  quickly  before  the 
ground  goes  dry  again  for  many  months.  Here 
the  children  could  search  for  the  first  flowers  of 
the  rainy  season,  instead  of  the  first  flowers  of 
spring. 

In  the  moist,  warm  countries  south  of  us,  nearer 
the  equator,  called  the  tropics,  all  kinds  of  flowers, 
some  of  them  magnificent,  bloom  the  year  round. 
So  there  are  no  first  flowers  of  spring  but  beautiful 
flowers  throughout  the  year. 

Every  country  has  its  own  kinds  of  flowers  which 
grow  wild  in  the  different  places,  each  in  the  kind 
of  place  it  likes  best.  But  people  like  flowers  so 
much  that  they  can  not  wait  to  go  out  into  the 
fields  and  woods  to  gather  them.  As  they  wish  to 
have  them  close  by  so  that  they  can  see  them  at 
any  time,  they  plant  flower  gardens  near  the  house 
or  in  parks  where  the  whole  city  can  visit  them. 

Besides  our  native  flowers,  the  brightest  and 
most  beautiful  that  can  be  found  in  the  far  away 
countries  are  brought  to  our  country  to  make  our 
.flower  gardens  and  parks  as  beautiful  as  they  canbe. 


FLOWERS  181 

People  love  flowers  so  much  that  every  spring 
they  get  the  flower  seed  catalogues  and  send 
away  for  seeds  and  bulbs  to  plant  in  their  flower 
beds. 

Such  great  numbers  of  people  want  flower  seeds 
and  bulbs  every  year,  that  large  farms  are  used 
just  on  purpose  to  raise  seeds  and  bulbs  to  sell  to 
the  lovers  of  flowers. 

Every  house  can  have  some  flowers  about  it. 
Many  schools  have  flowers  in  their  yards  and  in 
pots  in  their  rooms.  I  have  known  of  some 
school  rooms  where  every  child  had  a  flower  plant 
of  his  own  to  care  for  and  have  bloom. 

It  is  very  plain  why  the  love  of  every  one  for 
flowers  is  so  great.  Their  beautiful  bright  colors 
enliven  field,  wood  and  home  so  much  and  the 
graceful  and  delicate  forms  are  so  pleasant  to  see 
and  their  delicious  odors  so  delightful  to  smell, 
that  they  give  us  beautiful  and  pleasant  thoughts 
wherever  we  meet  them.  And  that  is  enough  to 
make  us  love  them. 

In  our  love  for  flowers  we  do  not  always  stop  to 
think  of  the  real  reason  why  flowers  have  their 
bright  colors,  beautiful  forms  and  delightful  per- 
fumes. We  might  suppose  that  all  these  are  for 
our  pleasure  alone.  But  when  we  look  more  care- 
fully into  the  life  of  the  plant  we  find  that  the 
flower  with  all  its  beauty  is  formed  as  it  is,  first 
of  all,  that  it  may  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  the 
plant  itself.  Like  other  beautiful  things  in  Nature, 
we  are  free  to  admire  the  flower  and  enjoy  it  as 


182  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

much  as  we  like  but  it  does  its  important  work  for 
itself  whether  we  look  at  it  or  not.  Away  in  the 
deep  woods  where  no  one  ever  goes,  or  high  up  on 
the  steep,  rocky  sides  of  the  mountain  where  no 
one  ever  climbs  or  in  the  deserts  or  fields  or  forests 
of  wild  countries  which  no  one  has  yet  explored, 
flowers  have  been  blooming  for  thousands  of  years. 
But  in  those  unknown  regions  as  well  as  about 
our  homes  the  flower  is  hard  at  work  for  the  plant 
that  bears  it.  Now  if  we  can  see  just  how  the 
flower  does  a  work  very  important  for  itself  it  will 
cause  us  to  admire  it  more  than  ever.  What  is 
this  great  work?  If  we  live  more  closely  to  the 
plants  and  watch  carefully  just  what  they  are 
doing  they  will  tell  us  plainly  what  their  beautiful 
flowers  are  doing  for  them. 

THE  PARTS  OF  THE  FLOWER  WORK  TO  FORM  THE 

SEEDS 

f  •  ;. 

The  really  most  important  work  of  the  flower 
for  the  plant  is  in  its  helping  to  make  the  seed. 
The  plant's  seeds  are  surely  important  enough  for 
the  plant,  for  how  could  it  keep  itself  going  on 
upon  the  earth  without  seeds?  It  is  true  that  the 
gardener  can  keep  some  kind  of  plants  going 
from  year  to  year  by  means  of  cuttings  and  bulbs. 
And  many  wild  plants  have  bulbs,  but  most  wild 
plants  have  no  other  way  of  bringing  on  new 
plants  except  by  seeds.  Even  those  that  have 
bulbs  and  other  ways  of  planting  themselves,  as 
with  runners,  need  seeds  to  help  them  get  into 


FLOWERS  183 

new  places.  So  seeds  are  very  necessary  to  the 
plant. 

In  another  chapter  we  saw  that  the  plants  show 
how  great  is  the  care  they  take  of  their  seeds, 
while  they  are  growing  and  also  what  a  number  of 
very  clever  ways  they  have  in  getting  the  seeds 
scattered  broadcast  into  new  places.  Some  of 
these  are:  the  balloons  and  wings  for  the  wind  to 
use;  the  burs,  hooks  and  barbs  to  fasten  to  the  fur 
of  animals;  sticky  substances  for  the  same  pur- 
pose; pods  that  throw  the  seeds  about;  boats  that 
float  them  and  many  other  curious  and  wonderful 
ways  of  caring  for  the  planting  of  the  seeds. 

Now  when  we  come  to  understand  a  little  about 
the  flowers,  we  find  that  they  have  very  curious  and 
beautiful  contrivances  to  help  them  make  the  seed. 
That  is  their  great  work. 

To  understand  it,  we  must  first  know  just  what 
part  of  the  flower  makes  the  seeds.  The  flower 
has  many  parts  and  some  of  these  parts  do  not 
turn  into  seeds,  but  only  help  the  work  along. 

As  every  one  knows,  there  are  thousands  of 
kinds  of  flowers  and  they  are  not  all  alike.  They 
do  not  all  have  just  the  same  parts,  but  great 
numbers  do,  although  they  may  be  of  very  many 
different  shapes  and  colors. 

If  you  look  into  the  face  of  a  flower  of  a  geranium, 
or  of  a  buttercup,  the  first  thing  you  notice  is  the 
bright  colored  part — red  in  the  geranium  and  yellow 
in  the  buttercup.  This  attractive  part  makes  the 
biggest  show.  It  is  called  the  corolla.  The 


184 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


corolla  is  the  bright  smiling  face  of  the  whole 
flower.  It  is  the  beauty  of  the  flower.  It  is  this 
that  makes  us  seek  far  and  wide  for  the  lovely,  cheery 
blossoms  to  give  ourselves  and  our  friends  pleasure 
at  the  sight  of  them.  If  we  take  the  corolla  of  a 
buttercup  apart,  we  find  it  is  made  up  of  five  pieces 
each  of  which  is  a  sort  of  little  yellow  leaf.  The 


FIG.  60. — Parts  of  a  flower;  calyx,  petals,  stamens  with  pollen 
grains,  pistil.  The  pistil  is  represented  cut  open  to  show  how  the 
pollen  grain  grows  down  to  join  the  part  that  is  to  become  the  seed. 
This  part  of  the  flower  is  drawn  as  a  diagram  to  show  where  this 
growth  takes  place  but  it  could  not  be  seen  in  the  flower  without  a 
microscope  and  much  skill  in  preparing  it. 

pieces  of  the  corolla  are  called  petals.  In  flowers 
like  the  morning-glory  and  petunia,  the  corolla  is 
not  in  separate  pieces  but  is  all  joined  into  one. 
It  makes  a  funnel-shaped  corolla  which  ends  in  a 
tube  at  the  bottom. 

Just  outside  of  the  bottom  of  the  corolla  is  a  cup 
in  which  the  corolla  stands.  This  cup  is  green  and 
is  sometimes  made  of  separate  pieces  like  little 


FLOWERS  185 

green  leaves.  But  sometimes  the  pieces  are 
joined  together  into  one.  This  green  cup  just 
outside  of  the  corolla  is  called  the  calyx.  When 
the  flower  is  in  bud,  before  it  opens,  the  calyx 
covers  it  all  over  and  keeps  it  safe  from  harm  until 
the  flower  opens.  These  two  parts  of  the  flower, 
the  calyx  and  corolla,  do  not  change  into  the  seed, 
but  they  have  to  do  some  very  important  work  in 
getting  the  seed  started. 

There  are  two  other  parts  of  the  flower  which  are 
usually  not  so  showy  but  are  very  important  in 
seed  making.  Just  inside  the  corolla  is  a  row  of 
tiny  stalks  with  knobs  on  the  ends  of  them.  They 
are  numerous  in  the  buttercup  and  apple  blossom, 
but  are  few  in  some  flowers  like  the  petunia  and 
geranium.  They  are  called  stamens.  Out  of  the 
little  things  on  the  tops  of  the  tiny  stems  of  the 
stamens,  a  fine  sort  of  colored  dust  drops.  This 
flower  dust  is  called  pollen.  While  the  particles  of 
dust  from  the  stamens  are  so  very  small,  yet  they 
are  very  important  in  seed  making  as  we  shall  see. 

Now  comes  the  fourth  or  last  part  of  the  flower. 
That  is  in  the  very  center  of  the  flower.  It  is 
called  the  pistil.  In  some  flowers  there  is  only 
one  pistil  and  in  some  there  are  a  few  and  in 
some  very  many.  Of  course  the  pistils,  like  the 
other  parts  of  the  flower,  differ  in  shape  and  size  in 
different  flowers. 

In  the  flower  here  pictured  which  has  only  one 
pistil,  we  see  its  top  standing  on  a  little  stalk  in  the 
center  of  the  stamens.  The  bottom  of  the  pistil 


186  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

is  larger  than  the  rest  of  it.  And  it  is  in  the  bot- 
tom part  of  the  pistil  that  the  seed  is  made.  In 
this  part  of  the  pistil  is  a  very  small  part  which 
can  grow  into  a  seed.  But  before  this  minute  part 
will  start  to  form  a  seed  there  is  one  thing  that  must 
take  place.  * 

One  of  the  tiny  grains  of  the  flower  dust,  that  is 
a  pollen  grain,  must  touch  the  minute  part 
inclosed  in  the  thick  portion  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pistil  before  that  part  will  start  to  grow  into  a  seed. 
There  we  have  the  secret  of  the  flower.  A  pollen 
grain  must  join  a  certain  part  inside  the  pistil 
before  there  can  be  a  seed.  It  seems  to  us  impossi- 
ble that  this  can  be  done,  but  the  plant  has  a  fine 
way  to  manage  it. 

In  the  first  place,  the  pollen  grains  are  alive  and 
if  they  are  planted  in  just  the  right  place  they  can 
grow.  Well,  the  right  place  is  on  the  top  of  the 
stalk  of  a  pistil.  The  top  of  this  pistil  stalk  is 
called  the  stigma.  The  stigma  is  made  on  pur- 
pose to  be  a  good  growing  place  for  pollen  grains. 
It  is  widened  out,  it  is  soft  and  is  covered  with 
a  sort  of  sweet  syrup.  When  a  pollen  grain  falls 
on  it,  it  will  begin  to  grow  into  a  very  slender  thread, 
like  a  mould  thread.  This  thread  goes  right  down 
through  the  pistil  stalk  till  it  finds  the  very  minute 
part  that  can  grow  into  a  seed.  When  the  pollen 
thread  reaches  this  part,  then  the  seed  growth 
begins. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  most  important  parts  of^the 
flower  are  the  stamens  with  the  pollen  grains  and 


FLOWERS  187 

the  pistil  with  the  beginning  seed  cell  hidden  down 
in  its  thickest  part. 

Now,  how  do  the  other  parts  of  the  flower,  the 
corolla  and  the  calyx,  help  in  this  work?  It  will 
be  very  interesting  to  find  out  how  they  make  part 
of  the  contrivance  for  getting  the  pollen  grain  on 
the  stigma  of  the  pistil,  so  that  the  most  important 
thing  of  all  can  take  place.  That  is,  that  the  pollen 
grain  shall  grow  down  to  touch  the  important  part 
that  is  to  grow  to  be  the  seed. 

GETTING  THE  POLLEN  ONTO  THE  STIGMA 

Now  if  we  keep  in  mind  that  a  pollen  grain  must 
be  placed  on  the  stigma  so  that  it  can  grow  down 
to  the  minute  seed  cell  and  start  it  and  the  parts 
around  it,  growing  into  the  seed  and  fruit,  we  are 
ready  to  look  into  the  flowers  to  see  how  they 
manage  to  get  it  done.  Since  pollen*  grains  are  so 
very  small,  just  a  fine  dust  in  most  flowers,  and  the 
stigma  is  quite  small  too,  it  looks  as  if  it  would  be  a 
pretty  hard  thing  for  a  plant  which  has  no  legs 
or  arms  and  cannot  move  its  parts  like  an  animal, 
to  plant  the  very  tiny  pollen  grains  on  the  tiny 
sugary  garden  of  the  stigma. 

Some  plants  have  flowers  whose  stamens  grow 
in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  the  pollen  near  to  the 
stigma  or  over  it  so  that  the  pollen  can  be  pushed 
up  against  it  or  fall  on  it  in  some  way.  This 
seems  to  be  the  easiest  way.  But  it  is  better  for 
most  plants  that  the  stigma  of  a  flower  should  get 
its  pollen  from  another  flower  instead  of  from  its 


188  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

own  stamens.  This  makes  better  seeds  in  very 
many  kinds  of  plants. 

To  bring  this  about,  the  plants  have  different 
ways.  In  some  kinds  of  flowers  the  stamens  grow 
in  such  a  way,  that  the  pollen  cannot  get  to  the 
stigma  in  the  same  flower. 

In  very  many  kinds  of  flowers  the  pollen  and  the 
stigma  do  not  ripen  at  the  same  time  in  the  same 
flower.  That  is,  when  the  pollen  in  a  flower 
is  ripe  and  ready  to  grow,  the  stigma  in  that  flower 
is  not  ready  for  it.  So  if  the  pollen  is  to  do  any 
good  it  must  be  planted  on  the  stigma  of  another 
flower,  that,  like  a  little  seed  bed,  is  all  ready  for  it. 
In  all  the  plants  with  such  flowers,  the  plants 
have  to  make  use  of  something  besides  themselves 
to  get  this  very  important  work  done.  That  is, 
getting  the  pollen  from  one  flower  to  another. 

People  who  love  plants  and  like  to  watch  their 
interesting  ways,  have  found  out  some  of  the  very 
curious  and  wonderful  means  that  different  plants 
have  of  getting  this  tiny  pollen  grain  carried  over 
from  one  flower  and  planted  on  the  little  stigma  bed 
of  another  flower,  which  may  be  only  a  short  space 
away  or  quite  a  long  distance  off. 

It  is  found  that  the  things  that  plants  use  for 
this  work  are  wind,  water,  and  animals.  The 
flowers  of  many  plants  are  formed  for  the  wind  to 
carry  their  pollen.  Some  water  plants  make  use 
of  the  water  to  float  their  pollen  out. 

All  these  are  very  interesting,  but  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  are  the  ones  which  make  use  of 


FLOWERS  189 

animals  to  carry  their  pollen  grains  around  and 
plant  them  carefully  on  the  stigmas. 

Flowers  of  this  kind  are  the  most  beautiful  ones 
and  smell  the  sweetest.  The  animals  that  do  this 
work  for  the  plants  are  mainly:  the  humming- 
birds, moths,  butterflies,  bees,  bumble-bees,  wasps, 
flies  and  many  other  insects.  These  flower  loving 
animals,  of  course,  do  not  know  any  thing  about 
planting  pollen  grains  on  stigmas  and  they  do  not 
care.  What  they  are  after  is  something  to  eat. 

And  here  is  where  the  wonder  comes  in;  we  see 
how  the  plants  have  formed  the  flowers  into  most 
ingenious  traps  and  baited  them  with  sweet 
nectar  or  other  food,  so  that  when  the  bird  or 
insect  comes  to  get  the  nectar,  without  knowing' 
the  good  it  is  doing  the  plant,  it  gets  pollen  of  one 
flower  just  in  the  right  place  on  its  body  to  brush  it 
off  on  the  stigma  of  another  flower  of  the  same  kind. 
The  plants  would  die  out  for  lack  of  seeds  if  it 
were  not  for  these  humming-birds  and  insects. 
The  humming-birds  and  insects  would  die  with 
out  the  plants.  The  flowers  are  formed  to  fit  the 
insects  and  the  insects  are  formed  to  fit  the  flowers. 
They  both  can  give  us  great  pleasure  in  seeing  how 
they  are  suited  to  each  other,  and  in  watching 
them  work  together.  The  gardens,  fields  and 
woods  are  full  of  these  curious  traps  and  the  insects 
and  humming-birds  at  work  in  them.  Let  us  find 
some  of  them. 


A  HUMMING-BIRD  FLOWER 

SCARLET  SALVIA 

It  was  Saturday.  The  children  went  out  into 
the  garden  to  see  how  some  of  their  plants  were 
coming  on.  They  soon  met  the  gardener.  Bessie 
told  him  that  they  had  learned  in  school  that  it  was 
necessary  for  the  pollen  in  the  stamens  to  be  placed 
on  the  stigmas  before  the  flowers  could  form  the 
seeds.  "That  was  a  good  lesson/'  said  the 
gardener,  and  he  showed  them  the  stamens  with 
the  pollen,  and  the  pistils  with  the  stigmas,  in 
several  flowers.  *'The  teacher  told  us,"  said 
Bessie,  "that  the  flowers  got  the  birds  and  insects 
to  help  them.  That  the  flowers  were  traps  to 
make  the  animals  place  the  pollen  on  the  stigmas. 
0,  how  I'd  like  to  see  them  do  it." 

The  gardener  said:  "Well,  let  us  hide  near  that 
bed  of  scarlet  salvias  and  watch  for  what  may 
happen."  This  bed  of  salvias  was  the  brightest 
spot  in  the  garden.  The  children  did  not  have 
long  to  wait  before  one  after  another,  swiftly 
whirring,  came  three  beautiful  ruby-throated  hum- 
ming-birds. They  dashed  from  flower  to  flower, 
hovering  an  instant  long  enough  to  thrust  their 
beaks  down  the  long  tubes  of  the  flowers.  They 
darted  about  so  swiftly,  that  the  quick  bright  eyes 

190 


A   HUMMING-BIRD    FLOWER  191 

of  the  children  had  to  be  very  alert  to  keep  sight  of 
them. 

After  seeing  that  the  lively  little  ruby-throat 
always  pushed  his  long  bill  down  the  scarlet  tube 
of  the  flower,  the  gardener  was  ready  to  show  the 
children  just  how  the  flower  trapped  the  humming- 


FIG.  61. — A  humming  bird  visiting  the  scarlet  salvia. 

bird  into  doing  what  must  be  done  that  the  seeds 
might  form. 

Each  took  an  opened  flower  in  his  hand  to 
examine  it  carefully.  In  the  scarlet  salvia,  some- 
times called  scarlet  sage,  both  the  calyx  and  corolla 
are  bright  scarlet.  The  corolla  is  a  long  tube. 
The  opening  of  the  coroFa  tube  looked  somewhat 
like  a  mouth,  opened  ready  to  swallow  something. 


192  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

Under  the  upper  lip  of  the  mouth,  the  children 
found  tucked  away  neatly,  and  covered  up  so  that 
the  rain  could  not  wet  them,  the  anthers  of  two 
stamens  and  the  forked  stigma.  They  were  quite 
•well  hidden,  but  their  little  stems  were  long  and 
went  down  in  the  flower.  The  stem  of  the  stigma 
went  to  the  bottom  of  the  flower  and  the  stamen 
stems  went  down  a  short  way  and  were  fastened  to 
the  sides  of  the  corolla  tube. 

The  gardener  then  showed  them  with  a  thin 
little  stick,  that  when  the  humming-bird  thrust 
his  long  bill  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  corolla 
tube  to  get  the  sweet  nectar  the  flower  had  all 
ready  for  it,  it  made  the  anthers  strike  down  on 
his  little  face.  Of  course  this  would  dust  his  face 
with  pollen.  Then  at  the  next  flower  it  visited 
the  stigma  pressing  down  on  its  face  would  get 
some  pollen  rubbed  on  it.  The  children  were 
delighted  to  see  the  flower  actually  at  work  trap- 
ping the  ruby-throat  into  doing  its  work,  and  not 
hurting  the  little  fellow  a  bit,  but  giving  him  a  sort 
of  ice-cream  soda  in  exchange. 

"  There  is  one  smart  thing/'  said  the  gardener 
" which  I  think  you  did  not  see  on  this  trap/7 
"Look  again  at  the  stamens  and  you  will  find  that 
there  branches  off  from  the  side  of  the  thin  stamen 
stem,  a  little  prong  that  lies  up  against  the  corolla 
tube/7  The  children  found  this  easily  enough. 

"Now  this  is  a  very  interesting  part  of  this  trap. 
It  is  fixed  so  that  the  bird,  in  pushing  his  bill  down 
into  the  tube,  causes  the  bill  to  press  against  the 


A   HUMMING-BIRD    FLOWER 


193 


prong  which  acts  like  a  lever,  to  pry  the  stamen 
down  on  the  ruby-throat's  face." 

"Well,"  said  Tom,  "this  is  surely  as  much  a  trap 
as  my  figure  four  that  I  set  for  quail.  Who  would 
have  thought  a  plant  could  make  such  a  trap." 

The  gardener  then  told  them  of  other  salvias 


FIG.  62. — The  upper  picture  is  the  flower  of  the  scarlet  salvia. 
The  lower  one  is  of  the  flower  cut  open  to  show  how  part  of  the  stamen 
makes  the  trigger  of  the  trap. 

that  had  flower  traps  for  bumble-bees.  Their 
flowers  were  shorter  and  wider  mouthed  so  that 
a  bumble  bee  could  get  in.  The  scarlet  salvia 
seems  to  like  humming-birds  better,  for  its  corolla 
tube  is  so  narrow  that  a  bumble-bee  cannot  get 
into  it.  But  in  the  bumble-bee  salvias,  the  trap  is 
of  just  the  same  kind.  They  have  levers  on  the 

13 


194  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

stamen  stems  to  trip  the  anthers  on  the  backs 
of  the  bees.  The  stigma  stem  does  not  need  a 
lever,  for  when  the  stigma  is  ready  for  the  pollen 
its  stem  grows  long  and  curves  down,  just  to 
touch  the  back  of  the  bee.  Since  the  stigma  in  a 
flower  is  not  ready  at  the  same  time  the  pollen  of 
that  flower  is  ripe,  you  see  that  that  stigma  must 
get  its  pollen  from  another  flower.  They  say 
that  humming-birds  like  red,  so  the  scarlet  color  of 
this  salvia  makes  its  humming-bird  trap  so  much  the 
better.  The  bright  color  makes  it  easy  for  the 
ruby-throat  to  find  it. 

Now  that  the  children  saw  that  some  flowers 
are  real  traps,  baited  and  set  for  some  animal  and 
colored  so  as  to  be  easily  found,  they  were  anxious 
to  find  out  if  other  kinds  of  flowers  were  traps  of 
the  same  kind. 

The  gardener  who  is  happy  always,  to  show  off 
his  loved  flowers  to  any  one  interested,  gladly 
promised  to  lead  them  jn  their  efforts  to  catch 
other  beautiful  blossoms  at  their  pretty  tricks. 


BUMBLEBEE  FLOWERS 

THE  SNAPDRAGON 

The  idea  that  the  blossoms  of  salvia  are  traps, 
stirred  the  children  up  to  look  for  other  traps 
among  the  flowers  in  the  garden.  Tom  said  that 
he  was  sure  that,  from  the  queer  way  the  flower  of 
the  snapdragon  is  formed,  it,  too,  must  be  some 
kind  of  a  trap. 

They  found  a  group  of  these  tall  plants  which 
were  bright  with  their  showy  bloom.  Tom  took 
off  one  of  the  blossoms  and  showed  Bessie  how 
curiously  the  lower  part  of  the  flower  pressed  tight 
up  against  the  upper  part.  If  you  press  the  lower 
part  down,  then  let  go  of  it,  it  springs  up  like  a 
mouth  shutting  with  a  snap.  Bessie  thought  that 
perhaps  that  was  why  it  is  called  snapdragon. 
"But  how  is  anything  going  to  get  into  the  flower 
when  it  is  closed  so  tightly?"  said  Bessie. 

They  found  places  around  the  group  of  plants 
where  they  could  see  well,  if  any  thing  visited 
the  blossoms.  The  gardener  watched  them  but 
thought  he  would  let  them  find  out  about  this 
plant  for  themselves.  They  had  hardly  got  seated 
before  sure  enough,  up  came  a  fine  big  bumblebee, 
buzzing  in  among  the  blossoms.  It  alighted  on 
the  lower  side  of  one  of  the  flowers.  The  children 

195 


196 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  63. — The  snapdragon. 


BUMBLEBEE    FLOWERS  197 

then  saw  that  that  part  of  the  flower  had  just  the 
shape  for  a  good  alighting  platform. 

The  weight  of  the  big  bee  began  to  open  the 
flower.  Then  the  bee  plunged  its  head  into 
the  opening  and  crawled  right  in.  In  a  short 
time  it  backed  out  again,  and  it  was  plain  to  be 
seen  that  its  back  was  covered  with  pollen.  This 


FIG.  64. — A  bumblebee  opening  the  snapdragon.     The  stamens  and 
stigma  will  touch  its  back. 

was  done  so  quickly  that  the  children  could  not 
see  every  thing  that  happened  in  that  first  visit. 
But  this  bee  visited  one  flower  after  another  and 
other  bumblebees  came  and  went  to  work  in  the 
same  way. 

This  gave  the  children  time  and  chance  enough, 
with  the  gardener  pointing  out  a  thing  or  two,  to 
see  how  the  snapdragon  made  the  bee  work  for  it. 
It  gave  the  bumblebee  nectar  from  a  sack  at  the 
bottom  of  the  flower.  Its  anthers  and  stigma 
were  neatly  tucked  away  in  the  upper  part  of  the 


198  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

flower  just  where  the  back  of  the  bee  would  brush 
against  them.  Then  there  was  the  nice  alighting 
platform.  And  when  the  bumblebee  started  to 
crawl  down  after  the  nectar,  the  lower  part  of  the 
flower  pressed  her  up  close  to  anthers  and  stigma. 
Soon  her  back  was  covered  with  pollen  and  as  she 
went  from  blossom  to  blossom  the  stigma  would 
get  dusted  with  it. 

The  blossoms  of  the  snapdragon  were  closed  so 
tightly  that  the  rain  was  kept  away  from  the  nectar 
and  the  pollen.  It  also  kept  many  other  insects 
out  and  held  every  thing  ready  for  the  big  bumble- 
bee which  was  heavy  and  strong  enough  to  open  it, 

The  bumblebee  just  suited  the  snapdragon. 
If  a  smaller  insect  got  in,  its  back  could  not  reach 
up  to  the  anthers  and  stigma.  It  would  get  the 
honey  but  would  do  the  flower  no  good.  Snap- 
dragons and  bumblebees  are  partners  and  work 
together. 

Of  course  the  children  were  delighted  to  have 
seen  for  themselves  the  bee  and  plant  working 
together.  Tom  had  a  chance  to  say,  "I  told  you 
that  the  snapdragon  must  be  some  kind  of  a  trap. 
So  now  you  see  how  it  is.  But  I  must  say/7  he 
added,  "I  did  not  think  it  could  be  such  a  good 
one." 

BUTTER-AND-EGGS 

The  gardener  told  them  that  if  they  would  like 
to  see  another  flower  which  was  a  trap  much  like 
the  snapdragon,  they  could  look  at  the  plants 


BUMBLEBEE    FLOWERS  199 

called  butter-and-eggs,  and  sometimes  toad-flax, 
growing  along  the  side  of  the  road.  They  did  so 
and  found  that  they  used  their  traps  in  much  the 
same  way.  At  the  bottom  of  the  blossom  of 
the  toad-flax  is  a  spur,  in  the  end  of  which  is  the 
nectar.  A  bumblebee  or  a  long-tongued  honey- 
bee alights  on  the  flower  platform,  crawls  in  and 
pushes  itself  in  as  far  as  it  can  to  reach  the  nectar 
at  the  end  of  the  spur.  This  presses  the  back  of 
the  bee  up  against  the  anthers  containing  the 
pollen  and  stigmas  just  as  in  the  snapdragon. 

"So  that's  what  the  spur  in  the  toad-flax  is  for, 
is  it?"  called  out  Bessie.  "Well,  I  know  of  some 
other  flowers  that  have  spurs  on  them.  I  wonder 
if  they  have  them  for  the  same  reason."  "What 
flowers?"  asked  Tom.  "Well,  there  is  the  colum- 
bine for  one.  And,  Oh  yes,  there  is  the  larkspur 
for  another"  replied  Bessie.  "Why  yes,  of 
course"  said  Tom,  "Why  didn't  I  think  of  them,  as 
they  are  both  in  this  garden." 

THE  COLUMBINE  AND  LARKSPUR 

So  next  these  spurred  plants  had  to  be  watched. 
A  nice  group  of  columbines  was  close  at  hand. 
The  columbine  blossoms  were  numerous.  Each 
was  made  up  of  five  pouches,  each  pouch  ending 
in  a  long  spur.  The  anthers  with  pollen  and  the 
stigmas  were  in  a  group  on  a  column  in  the  center 
of  the  flower.  The  flower  hung  with  mouth  down 
and  the  spurs  standing  up.  This  kept  the  rain  out. 

The  children  saw  their  old  friends,  the  bumble- 


200 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  65. — The   columbine. 


BUMBLEBEE    FLOWERS  201 

bees  come  to  a  flower.  A  bumblebee  would  crawl 
up  one  of  the  pouches  and  stretch  her  tongue  up  in 
the  spur  for  the  nectar.  In  doing  this,  she  would 
brush  her  back  against  the  bunch  of  anthers  and 
stigmas  hanging  down  from  the  center.  By  the 
time  all  the  five  pouches  had  been  explored  she 
would  have  good  chances  to  get  plenty  of  pollen. 
She  of  course  went  from  flower  to  flower  carrying 
the  pollen  along  for  the  stigmas.  The  columbine 
spurs  are  so  long  that  it  makes  it  a  bumblebee 
flower.  Those  bees  that  have  shorter  tongues 
can't  reach  the  nectar. 

Next  the  larkspur  proved  itself  to  be  a  bumble- 
bee trap  too.  It  has  a  good  place  for  the  bee  td 
alight  on.  Then  there  is  a  long  spur  with  nectar 
at  the  bottom.  The  anthers  and  stigmas  are 
placed  just  where  the  bumble  bee  must  press 
against  them  when  she  pushes  in  to  stretch  her 
tongue  down  the  spur  after  the  nectar. 

The  gardener  was  as  much  pleased  to  see  the 
children  find  out  these  interesting  things  about 
his  flowers  as  the  children  were  to  have  their  eyes 
opened  to  the  beautiful  contrivances  they  had 
found,  in  even  the  commonest  plants. 

The  gardener  said  "  There  is  one  thing  about 
bees  and  columbines  I  must  tell  you,  although  there 
is  something  of  meanness  in  it."  He  then  explained 
that  there  are  some  bees  which  do  not  have  long 
enough  tongues  to  reach  the  nectar  in  the  spurs,  so 
they  get  on  the  outside  of  the  spur  and  bite  into  it 
and  suck  the  nectar  out.  "Of  course  when  they 


202  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

do  this,  there  is  no  nectar  left  for  the  faithful  old 
bumblebee  and  the  pollen  does  not  get  carried  by 
her  to  the  stigmas." 

The  gardener  took  the  children  back  to  the  group 
of  columbines  and  sure  enough  they  found  some  of 
the  spurs  with  tiny  holes  bitten  into  them  and 
bees  stealing  nectar  through  them.  "That  is  just 
what  happens  to  my  traps  for  animals  sometimes" 
said  Tom.  "I  may  set  it  for  one  kind  of  animal, 
and  another  smaller  one,  say  a  mouse,  sneaks  in 
and  steals  the  bait  without  springing  the  trap." 

It  was  now  getting  so  late  that  the  bees  had  gone 
home.  Just  then  the  supper  bell  rang  and  the 
children  were  quite  ready  with  big  appetites  to 
enjoy  the  meal. 

Of  course  they  had  a  lively  time  telling  their 
mother  and  father  of  their  experiences.  Bessie 
said,  "I  am  going  to  write  to  Nancy  about  what 
we  have  seen  and  get  her  and  John  to  see  what  they 
can  find  in  their  garden."  Tom,  who  is  not  very 
fond  of  writing  letters  himself  was  quite  willing  for 
Bessie  to  do  this.  Later  on  he  said  to  her,  "Next 
Saturday  when  we  have  time  let  us  look  for  more  of 
the  flower  traps  for  insects."  Bessie  readily  agreed 
to  this. 

And  if  it  does  not  rain  I  am  sure  we  will  get  some 
interesting  reports  from  this  wide-awake*  pair. 

THE  IRIS  BLOSSOM 

The  children  had  some  good  stories  to  tell  at 
school  the  next  day  about  their  finding  such 


BUMBLEBEE    FLOWERS 


203 


cunning  traps  in  the  flowers  of  their  garden.  The 
teacher  wished  them  to  bring  some  of  their  flower 
traps,  to  show  the  rest  of  the  children.  You  may 
well  believe  that  they  readily  promised  to  do  so. 


FIG.  66.— The  iris.     The  stamens  and  stigma  will  brush  the  back  of 
the  bumblebee  when  it  tries  to  reach  the  nectar. 

As  it  was  Friday,  they  could  not  do  that  until 
Monday.  '  But  they  were  now  more  than  ever 
anxious  to  spend  Saturday  in  the  garden  exploring 
for  a  larger  number  of  such  flowers. 

Saturday  morning   came   with   a   cloudy   sky, 
which  made  a  cloud  of  disappointment  spread  over 


204  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

their  eager  faces.  But  before  long  the  clouds 
began  to  break  away,  and  the  sun  came  out  and 
soon  the  clouds  were  swept  away  and  the  sky  was 
blue  and  bright.  Then  the  garden  shone  with 
color.  The  birds,  bees  and  butterflies  came  flutter- 
ing and  flying  and  buzzing  about.  The  clouds 
also  disappeared  from  the  children's  faces  and 
they  went  gaily  on  their  delightful  excursion. 

Having  already  seen  how  some  blossoms  and 
bumblebees  work  together,  Tom's  first  thought 
was  to  watch  for  a  bumblebee  and  follow  it,  to 
see  if  any  other  flowers  were  fitted  to  it.  Almost  at 
once  he  saw  one  with  a  serious  but  good  natured 
hum  alight  on  an  iris  blossom  near  by.  Both 
children  got  closer  to  get  a  good  look  at  the 
bumblebee's  work.  The  iris  blossom  has  three 
parts  that  turn  down,  and  three  that  are  erect. 
On  each  of  the  parts  that  turn  down  is  a  ridge  of 
soft  hairs.  The  bumblebee  alights  on  one  of  the 
turned  down  parts  and  crawls  along  the  pathway 
of  hairs  to  push  its  head  down  into  the  flower  and 
stretch  its  tongue  after  the  nectar.  In  doing  this 
it  brushes  against  a  stamen  with  its  anther  which 
stands  right  in  front  of  it,  and  gets  pollen  on  its 
back. 

Just  behind  the  stamen  is  a  broad  piece  that 
looks  like  a  little  petal.  On  its  face  is  a  surface 
which  is  the  stigma.  This  bends  over  enough  to 
touch  the  bumblebee's  back.  The  children  did 
not  see  the  stigma  at  first.  It  was  so  different 
from  the  other  stigmas  they  had  seen.  But  when 


BUMBLEBEE    FLOWERS  205 

the  gardener  showed  them  which  part  was  the 
stigma,  it  was  all  plain. 

Here  now  was  a  fine  bumblebee  trap.  The 
showy  erect  parts  of  the  blossom  were  bright  flags 
to  call  the  bumblebee  and  the  rest  was  a  beauti- 
fully contrived  trap  to  get  him  to  carry  pollen  to 
stigma. 

Then  the  gardener  had  them  see  in  what  way  the 
gladiolus  was  a  fine  bumblebee  trap.  And  next 
they  watched  bumblebees  at  work  on  the  foxglove 
blossoms  and  found  that  the  blossoms  instead  of  be- 
ing gloves  for  fitting  on  foxes'  paws,  fit  perfectly  on 
bumblebees'  bodies  and  get  their  pollen  planted  on 
the  stigmas  in  return  for  giving  the  bees  the  nectar. 

The  special  form  of  the  pea  blossoms  is  a  finely 
arranged  one  for  bees  to  get  and  to  carry  pollen 
from  plant  to  plant.  The  bee  alights  on  the 
landing  place.  Its  weight  presses  that  part  down. 
The  stigma  and  pollen  are  thrown  up  against  the 
under  side  of  the  insect.  The  color  and  fragrance 
of  the  blossom  help  the  bee  to  find  the  flower,  and 
then  it  sips  the  sweet  nectar. 

BUTTERFLY  FLOWERS 

Then  there  were  flowers  that  had  nice  little 
tubes  with  nectar  at  the  bottom  just  placed  so 
that  butterflies  with  their  long  tongues  could 
reach  it  without  trouble.  The  beautiful  visitors 
alighted  and  unrolled  their  tongues  which  were 
coiled  up  like  a  watch  spring  under  the  head. 
When  the  butterfly  reached  its  tongue  down  after 


206  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

the  nectar,  it  would  get  pollen  on  its  face.  When  it 
visited  the  next  flower  this  pollen  would  be  brushed 
upon  the  stigma  of  that  flower.  In  some  of  these 
flowers  the  nectar  cannot  be  reached  by  either 
the  short-tongued  or  the  long-tongued  bees.  For 
this  reason  they  must  depend  on  the  butterflies 
with  much  longer  tongues.  On  this  account  they 
are  called  butterfly  flowers. 


FLOWERS  FOR  VARIOUS  INSECTS 
BUTTERCUPS  AND  APPLE  BLOSSOMS 

When  the  children  watched  the  buttercups  they 
found  bees  and  some  kinds  of  flies  visiting  the 
flowers.  But  they  could  not  see  how  the  flowers 
were  traps.  The  gardener  showed  them  that  at 
the  bottom  of  each  bright  yellow  petal  is  a  place 
where  the  nectar  is  formed.  This  is  what  the 
insect  is  after. 

In  the  middle  of  the  blossom  is  a  large  number 
of  stamens  and  just  in  the  center  is  a  number  of 
pistils  with  their  stigmas.  When  the  insect  searches 
for  the  nectar  it  crawls  around  over  the  stamens 
and  stigmas,  and  in  that  way,  gets  pollen  on  its 
body  which  then  can  be  brushed  on  the  stigmas. 
So  it  is  as  much  a  trap  as  is  any  other  flower. 

Blossoms  of  fruits  such  as  apples,  pears,  peaches 
and  blackberries  are  formed  on  something  of  the 
same  plan.  There  is  a  bunch  of  stamens  and 
pistils  in  the  center  over  which  the  bees  and  other 
insects  must  crawl,  in  order  to  get  the  sweet 
liquid  at  the  bottom  of  the  blossom.  Thus  they 
carry  pollen  to  stigmas. 

THE  SUNFLOWER 

The  largest  flower  in  the  garden  was  a  big  sun- 
flower. It  was  fully  a  foot  across  and  with  its 

207 


208 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


bright  golden  fringe  of  petals,  was,  as  we  all  know, 
a  very  showy  blossom.  And  since  it  was  raised 
high  on  a  tall  stalk,  it  could  be  seen  from  a  long 
distance. 

The  children  determined  to  find  out  what  kind 


FIG.  67.— A  sunflower.     The  large  disc  is  made  up  of  a  very  large 
number  of  small  flowers  called  florets. 

of  an  insect  trap  it  might  be.  Tom  brought  a 
step  ladder  so  that  they  could  see  it  more  closely. 
Then  they  found  their  old  friend  the  bumblebee, 
crawling  over  the  flower  and  apparently  very  busy. 
It  would  take  a  few  steps  and  push  its  head  down 


FLOWEKS   FOR  VARIOUS   INSECTS 


209 


as  if  it  were  feeding  on  something.  Then  a  few 
steps  more  and  down  again  would  go  its  head. 
Its  head  and  body  were  yellow  with  pollen. 

They  could  not  make  out  just  what  was  happen- 
ing. So  the  gardener  said  that  .they  could  have 
the  big  flower  and  take  it  apart  to  find  out  how  it 
was  formed. 

When  they  did  so,  they  were 
surprised  to  find  that  what  they 
had  always  thought  was  one 
big  flower,  was  really  a  large 
group  of  very  little  flowers 
crowded  together.  Each  little 
flower  had  a  corolla  in  the  form 
of  a  tube.  Inside  of  the  co- 
rolla tube  were  the  stamens 
joined  together  in  a  little  tube. 
Inside  the  stamen  tube,  was 
the  stigma  of  the  pistil.  As 
the  little  flower  was  growing 
the  stamens  ripened  first  and 
were  pushed  up  by  the  grow-  ing. 
ing  pistil  with  its  stigma. 
Later,  up  came  the  stigma  above  the  stamen  tube 
and  opened  out,  into  a  forked  top.  Now  the  little 
flowers  over  the  face  of  the  big  sunflower  do  not 
all  get  their  growth  at  the  same  time.  Some  are 
just  forming  when  others  are  done  blooming. 

In  this  way,  some  have  little  bunches  of  pollen 
on  the  tops  of  the  stamen  tubes  and  others  have 
the  pollen  all  gone  and  the  forked  stigmas  standing 


1  2  3 

FIG.  68. — Florets  from 
the  disc  of  the  sunflower. 
1,  A  floret  with  the  stamen 
tube  and  a  bunch  of  pollen 
at  the  top.  2,  An  older 
floret  with  the  forked 
stigma  growing  out  of 
the  top.  3,  A  still  older 
floret  which  shows  the 
seed  at  the  bottom  enlarg- 


14 


210  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

up  above  them.  The  sweet  nectar  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  tiny  corolla  tube. 

Now  comes  the  bumblebee.  It  thrusts  its 
tongue  down  the  tube  to  get  the  nectar.  From 
some  of  the  little  flowers,  it  gets  a  load  of  pollen. 
On  others,  only  stigmas  stand  up  and  the  bee  dusts 
them  with  pollen  from  its  body.  So  here  we  have 
the  trap  again.  Other  insects  visit  this,  what  might 
be  called  a  bed  of  flowers,  and  help  in  the  same  way. 

The  big  yellow  petals  on  the  outside  rim  of  the 
big  sunflower,  they  found  to  be,  each  one  a  very 
much  enlarged  petal  of  a  little  flower.  These, 
placed  on  the  outside  row,  make  this  bed  of  little 
flowers  look  like  one  big  flower.  These  yellow 
petals  help  the  sunflower  plant  by  making  it  easy 
to  be  seen  and  found  by  the  insects. 

They  saw  that  this  big  sunflower  was  planned 
just  like  the  dandelion,  the  dahlia  and  many  other 
blossoms,  all  of  which  are  real  traps  for  bees  and 
butterflies. 


NANCY'S  LETTER  ABOUT  MOTH 
FLOWERS  AND  OTHER  MATTERS 

Hummingdale,  Ohio,  June  30,  1921 
DEAR  BESSIE  : 

I  received  your  letter  about  flowers  yesterday, 
and  I  was  just  wild  to  go  right  into  our  garden  to 
see  if  any  of  our  flowers  did  the  same  as  you  tell 
about  the  flowers  in  your  garden.  I  read  the 
letter  to  John  and  Mother.  John  said,  "I  wonder 
if  it  is  all  true.  Let's  go  right  out  and  find  out  for 
ourselves." 

Well  it  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  I  got  your 
letter,  and  it  was  about  dusk  when  we  reached  the 
garden.  It  was  too  late  for  bees  and  butterflies  to 
be  out  and  we  were  disappointed  because  we  would 
have  to  wait  till  next  day. 

But  when  we  told  Mother,  she  said  that  there 
were  some  blossoms  that  were  just  fitted  for 
moths  to  visit.  And  moths  only  came  out  in  the 
dusk  or  after  dark.  She  told  us  that  we  might  go 
and  watch  the  beds  of  evening  primroses.  Then  I 
said,  "0  yes,  I  remember  now  reading  about  the 
tomato-worm  growing  into  the  big  hawk  moth 
which" ^visits  evening  primroses  and  other  flowers. 
The  story  said  that  it  helped  the  plants  form  the 
seeds.  But  then  I  did  not  understand  it  very  well. 

211 


212 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


But  the  letter  makes  it  plain.    Let's  go  and  watch 
them  and  see  how  it  is.'7 

So  we  went  first  to  the  evening  primrose  bed. 


' 


FIG.  69. — Sprig  of  the  evening  primrose.     One  blossom  open. 

The  sun  had  just  gone  down  but  it  was  still  light 
enough  to  see  quite  well.  The  blossoms  here  and 
there  were  just  popping  open.  I  told  John  it  was 
like  a  big  corn  popper  only  the  grains  were  big  and  a 
golden  yellow.  Soon,  sure  enough,  here  came  a 


NANCY  S    LETTER   ABOUT   MOTH    FLOWERS 


213 


whirring  something  that  acted  just  like  a  humming- 
bird. It  dashed  from  blossom  to  blossom,  hovering 
a  short  time  over  each.  John  declared  it  was  a 
humming-bird.  But  one  hovered  over  a  blossom 
so  near  me  that  I  could 
plainly  see  it  unroll  a  long 
tongue,  coiled  up  under  its 
head.  The  coil  looked  just 
like  the  garden  hose  coiled 
up.  It  put  its  tongue  down 
the  long  tube  of  the  blossom 
while  it  still  hovered  over  the 
flower  without  alighting  on 
it,  just  the  way  a  humming- 
bird does.  It  certainly  was 
a  big  moth,  and  John,  when 
he  had  a  chance  to  see  it  quite 
near,  was  also  convinced. 

We  then  took  off  a  blossom 
and  opened  it  and  found  out 
how  it  was  a  moth  trap. 
From  your  letter  we  knew 
what  to  do.  The  blossom 
has  a  long  narrow  tube  with 
sweet  nectar  at  the  bottom. 
Right  outside,  in  the  flower  cup,  stand  the  five 
stamens  and  the  one  stigma.  The  moth  pushes 
down  its  tongue  after  the  nectar  and  jams  its 
head  right  among  the  stamens  and  against  the 
stigma.  The  pollen  it  gets  from  one  blossom  it 
carries  to  the  stigma  of  the  next. 


FIG.  70.— Blossom  of  the 
evening  primrose  split  open 
to  show  how  long  and 
narrow  is  the  tube  to  reach 
the  nectar. 


214 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


The  primrose  bed  was  like  a  long  counter  in  a 
country  store  where  the  soda  water  fountain  is. 
The  counter  was  covered  with  golden  glasses  with 
primrose  syrup  in  them.  Each  customer  moth 


Fia.  71. — White-lined  sphynx.     One  of  the  moths  that  visits  long 
tubed  flowers. 

brought  his  own  straw  and  had  a  jolly  time.  He 
thought  he  didn't  have  to  pay  any  thing.  But  we 
know  how  he  paid  the  plant  for  his  good  time. 

Mother  then  had  us  see  how  bees  and  other 
insects  could  not  get  the  nectar.     And  then  the 


NANCY'S  LETTER  ABOUT  MOTH  FLOWE'RS       215 

blossoms  open  best  in  the  evening  when  moths  fly 
and  bees  go  to  bed.  She  said  it  was  a  good  moth 
flower. ' 

We  next  saw  moths  visiting  narcissus  and  honey- 
suckle blossoms.  When  we  examined  these  flowers 
we  found  that  they  too  had  tubes  with  nectar  at 
the  bottom  and  the  stamens  and  the  stigma  stand- 
ing out  just  so  that  the  moth's  head  would  have  to 
push  in  among  them  when  it  tried  to  get  the  nectar. 

You  see  if  a  moth  wished  some  other  kind  of 
syrup,  he  would  go  over  to  the  narcissus  or  the 
honey-suckle  counter.  He  would  have  a  different 
kind  of  drinking  glass  too,  but  always  beautiful. 

But  it  soon  grew  too  dark  to  see  any  longer 
and  we  had  to  give  it  up  for  that  time.  Mother 
told  us  that  there  were  many  kinds  of  moths  that 
visited  flowers  of  different  kinds  and  helped  them 
get  their  pollen  to  the  stigmas.  As  moths  fly  by 
night,  she  told  us  many  of  the  moth  flowers  were 
white  and  fragrant  so  the  moths  could  find  them 
after  dark. 

I  often  think  of  the  good  times  we  had  at  your 
house.  And  wasn't  that  seed  gathering  picnic 
lots  of  fun?  After  learning  at  that  time  what 
bright  ways  plants  have  of  getting  their  seeds 
scattered  about,  I  am  not  surprised  to  find  them 
clever  enough  to  grow  such  good  traps  to  get  the 
insects  to  carry  the  pollen  about  so  that  the  seeds 
may  form. 

Now  we  can  hardly  wait  until  tomorrow  to  see 
some  of  the  things  you  wrote  about.  We  have 


216 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  72. — Narcissus. 


NANCY'S  LETTER  ABOUT  MOTH  FLOWERS       217 


some  of  the  same  kind  of  flowers  that  you  have 
in  your  garden  and  some  that  you  did  not  tell 
about. 

John  wishes  you  to  ask  Tom  to  findjout  if 
there  are  not  some  water  plants  around  the  old 
swimming  hole  that  need  investigation.  If  so^he 


FIG.  73. — Narcissus,  cut  open  showing  tube  to  reach  nectar. 

would  like  to  come  down  and  help  him  find  out 
about  them. 

And  Oh  Bessie,  you  know  those  fine,  showy,  odd 
looking  flowers  they  have  for  sale  at.  the  flower 
stores  called  orchids.  Some  of  them  cost  a  dollar 
apiece.  They  say  they  grow  wild  in  the  tropical 
forests  of  Brazil  and  that  each  one  is  a  curious  trap 
to  make  insects  carry  pollen  from  stamens  to 
stigma.  I  am  going  to  try  to  learn  about  them. 

Be  sure  to  write  me  about  any  new  thing  you 
may  find  out  about  flowers  and  insects.  And 


218  INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 

Bessie,  what  are  the  most  exciting  things  the  girls 
in  your  school  are  doing  this  year?  When  does 
your  vacation  begin?  It  is  your  and  Tom's  turn 
to  visit  us  this  summer. 

Goodbye,  with  love  to  all,  from  your  friend, 

NANCY. 

P.  S.  Mother  has  just  read  this  letter  over  and 
she  says  you  don't  have  to  go  to  Brazil  to  find 
orchids.  That  we  have  some  in  our  own  woods. 
Well,  when  you  come  up  next  vacation,  we  will 
go  out  and  find  them  and  see  what  tricks  they 
play  on  the  bumblebees.  Talking  about  tricks, 
I  know  a  good  one  we  can  play  on  John  and  Tom. 
Will  tell  you  when  you  come. 

Goodbye, 

NANCY. 


A   PLANT   THIEF 

Bessie  had  started  a  geranium  in  a  flower  pot 
in  the  green  house.  She  obtained  the  slip  from  a 
beautiful  variety  which  she  saw  when  visiting 
her  friend  at  Floraville.  It  had  been  growing 
several  weeks  and  was  looking  fine.  She  expected 
it  to  bloom  soon.  As  she  had  not  seen  it  for  some 
days  she  went  to  have  a  look  at  it. 

She  was  surprised  to  find  a  slender  yellow  thread 
coiled  around  the  stem  of  the  geranium  and  sending 
out  branches  over  the  geranium  stem  and  leaves. 
As  the  yellow  thread  had  no  leaves  and  had 
no  root  in  the  ground,  Bessie  thought  it  did  not 
look  much  like  a  plant.  She  tried  to  unwind  it 
and  take  it  away  from  the  geranium.  But  no, 
it  held  fast.  She  found  that  it  had  what  looked 
like  a  lot  of  suckers  that  went  right  into  the  stem 
of  the  geranium  and  that  she  would  have  to  tear 
the  bark  of  the  geranium,  to  get  the  yellow  thread 
away. 

"Ugh!  what  can  the  thing  be?"  exclaimed  the 
little  girl.  Then  she  decided  to  go  to  the  gardener 
as  she  always  did  when  she  got  into  trouble  about 
her  plants. 

The  gardener  was  always  quick  to  help  whenever 
either  Bessie  or  a  plant  got  into  trouble.  At  the 
first  glance  he  said,  "Oh,  a  Dodder  has  got  into 

219 


220 


INTERESTING    NEIGHBORS 


your  geranium  pot."  "Dodder?  what's  a  Dodder?" 
asked  Bessie.  "Well,"  answered  the  gardener, 
"the  Dodder  is  a  plant  thief,  that  climbs  up  on 
the  backs  of  other  plants  and  picks  their  pockets. 
I  think,  as  this  is  a  young  one  and  has  not  gone 


FIG.  74. — A  part  of  a  dodder  vine  with  blossoms  twining  around  a 

plant  stem. 

very  far,  we  can  get  it  off  and  save  the  geranium." 
When  they  had  rescued  the  geranium,  Bessie 
wished  to  know  more  about  the  Dodder.  How  it 
could  get  along  without  leaves  or  roots?  How 
did  it  get  started  on  other  plants?  Did  it  have 
flowers  and  seeds? 

The  gardener  led  Bessie  outside  of  the  garden 
and  in  a  fence  corner,  showed  her  a  tangled  snarl 


A   PLANT   THIEF  221 

of  Dodder  threads  growing  on  some  weeds.  The 
slender  Dodder  vine  had  numerous  clusters  of  very 
small  flowers.  These  of  course  made  the  seeds 
which  were  also  small,  about  the  size  of  clover 
seeds. 

The  gardener  then  explained  how  the  plant  lives. 
When  the  little  seeds  ripen  they,  of  course,  fall  to 
the  ground.  They  usually  do  not  grow  till  late 
in  the  spring,  after  most  of  the  other  plants  have 
made  a  good  start.  When  a  dodder  seed  sprouts, 
it  grows  out  into  a  small  slender  thread  with  a  very 
tiny  root  sent  into  the  ground.  There  is  just 
enough  food  in  the  seed  to  take  it  that  far.  The 
tiny  thread  swings  around  in  the  air  to  find  a  plant 
around  which  to  coil.  If  it  never  finds  a  live  plant 
to  climb  upon,  it  withers  and  dies. 

If  it  finds  a  live  plant  it  twines  about  it  and  just 
where  its  thread-like  stem  touches  the  stem  of  the 
other  plant,  there  grow  suckers  that  hold  fast  and 
push  themselves  right  into  its  victim.  These 
suckers  draw  out  the  sap,  which  is  the  life's  blood 
of  the  plant,  and  live  on  it. 

Now,  as  you  know,  the  green  plants  get  their 
supplies  for  food  by  means  of  their  roots  and  leaves, 
but  this  thief  has  no  further  use  for  either  roots  or 
leaves.  It  grows  no  leaves  and  the  one  little 
root  that  it  had  to  start  with  to  help  it  up  to  its 
victim,  soon  withers  away. 

For  the  rest  of  its  life,  it  lets  the  plant  it  is  rob- 
bing, do  the  work  of  food  making  with  its  roots  and 
leaves,  while  it  sucks  up  the  rich  juices  its  victim 


222  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

has  made  and  passes  them  into  its  own  body. 

As  it  must  have  seeds  of  its  o,wn  to  keep  its  kind 
going  from  year  to  year,  it  forms  an  abundance  of 
flowers.  "Now  would  you  think  such  a  bad  plant 
could  be  a  near  relative  to  the  beautiful  morning 
glories?"  added  the  gardener. 

Of  course  Bessie  had  an  astonishing  story  to  tell 
Tom.  Very  excitedly  she  showed  him  her  rescued 
geranium,  and  took  him  to  see  the  poor  weeds 
loaded  down  with  the  robber  plants.  They  learned 
that  there  are  many  kinds  of  dodders.  Some  are 
very  destructive  to  many  of  the  plants  that  man 
tries  to  raise.  One  infects  hop- vines  and  another 
hemp  plants  and  other  dodders  have  other  favorite 
victims. 

They  learned  that  the  bright  orange  patches 
which  they  saw  on  the  salt  marshes  as  they  rode  to 
the  city,  were  patches  of  dodder  growing  on  the 
marsh  plants. 

"0,  now  I  remember  seeing  an  advertisement  in 
the  paper/7  said  Tom,  "which  said,  "Pure  alfalfa 
seed  for  sale  entirely  free  from  dodder!  I  did 
not  see  what  it  could  mean  till  now. "  "  Yes, "  said 
the  gardener,  "One  of  the  greatest  enemies  of 
alfalfa  is  a  kind  of  dodder.  The  dodder  seeds 
look  much  like  the  alfalfa  seeds  and  are  about  the 
same  size.  There  is  great  dangerthat  they,  when 
the  seed  is  cleaned,  may  slip  through  and  get 
planted  with  the  alfalfa.  Then  the  farmer  would 
be  planting  a  robber  with  his  alfalfa  which  would 
soon  begin  to  eat  up  his  valuable  crop." 


A    PLANT   THIEF  223 

"Well,"  said  Bessie,  "so  many  plants  are  good 
and  beautiful,  I  don't  like  to  think  that  there  are 
any  bad  ones." 

"But  I  don't  know,"  said  Tom,  "that  what  the 
dodder  does  is  any  worse  than  what  we  do  when  we 
break  up  a  stalk  of  sugar  cane  and  suck  out  the 
juice." 

"Well  it  seems  different  to  me,"  added  Bessie. 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS 

Every  one  knows  how  the  animals  prey  upon 
the  plants  for  their  food.  The  cows  and  horses 
take  the  grasses  and  grains.  The  goats  strip  the 
bushes  of  their  leaves.  The  squirrels  gather  in 
the  nuts.  The  pigs  tear  up  the  ground  for  the  roots 
and  the  birds  make  raids  on  the  fruits  and  seeds. 

Most  of  the  plants  appear  to  be  helpless  and  stand 
quietly  as  they  are  robbed  or  destroyed  for  an 
animal's  good.  But  what  would  animals  and  man 
do  without  the  plants  for  food? 

Plants  with  green  leaves  form  their  own  food 
from  the  air,  water  and  earth,  without  disturbing 
anybody.  But  animals  cannot  do  that.  So  they 
have  to  wait  until  the  plants  make  food  before  they 
can  have  any  thing  to  eat.  Even  those  animals 
which,  like  the  tiger,  live  on  other  animals,  would 
have  no  animals  to  eat  if  plants  did  not  live  and 
form  food  for  them. 

Man  is  just  as  dependent  on  plants  as  are  the 
other  animals.  He  does  not  wait  for  the  plants 
that  grow  wild.  The  gardener  plants  long  rows  of 
cabbages  and  turnips  and  the  farmer  has  great 
fields  of  corn,  wheat  and  hay.  These  are  gathered 
in  and  stored  in  cellars,  warehouses  and  barns. 
When  all  these  stores  of  food  are  taken  from  the 
helpless  plants,  there  is  never  a  thought  that  they 

224 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS          225 

could  put  up  a  fight  or  do  any  thing  against  the 
animals. 

So  no  one  is  afraid  of  a  plant.  But  strange  to 
say,  there  are  a  few  plants  in  the  world  that, 
beside  the  food  they  make  from  air,  water  and 
earth,  have  learned  to  like  a  taste  of  animal  food. 
They  have  actually  made  traps  to  catch  animals 
for  food  and  thus  get  even.  Luckily  for  us,  these 
plants  only  try  to  catch  small  animals  like  insects 
or  even  smaller.  So  we  need  not  be  afraid  of 
them. 

When  watching  the  flowers,  we  saw  how  many 
of  them  were  cunning  traps  to  make  insects  do  some 
good  for  the  plants.  But  the  flowers  always  gave 
the  insects  a  good  dinner  in  return  and  let  them  go 
without  harming  them.  There  are  other  plants, 
however,  which  have  traps  that  hold  the  insects 
and  kill  them,  so  that  the  plant  can  use  them  as 
food. 

PITCHER-PLANTS 

One  group  of  such  plants  are  the  pitcher-plants. 
They  are  given  that  name  because  some  of  their 
leaves  grow  into  vessels  that  are  shaped  just  like 
pitchers,  which  will  really  hold  water.  But  do  not 
think  for  a  moment  that  these  plants  are  keeping 
pitchers  of  delicious  water  ready  for  thirsty 
wanderers  out  of  pure  kindliness.  No,  indeed, 
their  pitchers  are  deadly  traps  to  catch  unwary 
insects  and  drown  them  in  the  water  and  then  use 
them  as  food. 

15 


226 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


\ 


JTIG    75. — A  pitcher  plant  from  a   North  Carolina  bog. 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS          227 

There  are  several  kinds  of  pitcher-plants  found 
in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Their  pitchers 
differ  in  sizes  and  shapes,  but  they  all  trap  the 
insects  in  about  the  same  way. 

Some  time  ago  we  were  tramping  through  the 
lowlands  near  the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  On 
the  edge  of  a  pine  woods,  we  came  upon  a  bog. 
As  it  was  summer  the  bog  was  somewhat  dried  out, 
so  that  we  could  walk  about  on  it.  We  were 
surprised  to  find  scattered  there,  a  number  of  the 
very  pitcher-plants  we  had  been  reading  about. 
You  may  be  sure  we  lost  no  time  in  looking  into 
the  ways  of  this  insect  eating  plant. 

Each  plant  had  a  group  of  leaves  springing  up 
from  the  ground  from  a  foot  to  two  feet  high. 
They  were  shaped  like  tall  slender  pitchers.  At 
the  top  of  each  pitcher,  a  leaf -like  hood  stood  up 
more  like  a  flag  than  a  hood.  The  pitchers  were 
yellow  and  so  slender  they  perhaps  looked  more 
like  tin  trumpets  and  for  that  reason  the  people 
called  them  trumpet  plants. 

In  kneeling  down  to  get  a  good  look,  we  got 
what  we  were  not  seeking,  a  very  unpleasant  smell. 
The  pitchers  were  a  third  full  of  water  in  which 
were  a  number  of  drowned  flies  and  other  insects. 
The  way  the  flies  were  caught  was  this.  Each 
pitcher  oozed  out  sweet  nectar  around  the  mouth. 
The  flies  coming  to  feed  on  the  nectar  would  some 
of  them  be  sure  to  slip  down  the  throat  of  the 
pitcher.  This  was  fixed  so  that  it  was  smooth 
going  down.  But  many  stiff  sharp  hairs  grew 


228  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

in  the  throat  and  pointing  downward,  made  it 
impossible  for  the  insects  to  crawl  up  and  out. 
So  there  was  nothing  left  to  do  but  fall  back  into 
the  water  and  be  drowned. 

Well,  what  good  does  such  a  seemingly  cruel 
trap  do  the  plant?  It  has  been  found  that  the 
plant  sends  out  into  the  water,  in  the  pitcher, 
substances  which  digest  the  fleshy  parts  of  the 
insects  just  as  the  stomachs  and  intestines  of 
animals  give  out  liquids  which  digest  the  food  they 
swallow. 

So  these  pitchers  are,  beside  being  traps,  a  sort 
of  stomach  by  which  the  pitcher  plants  supply 
themselves  with  animal  food,  beside  the  food  their 
roots  and  leaves  form  from  air,  water  and  soil. 

It  seems  cruel  for  a  plant  to  offer  sweet  food  and 
then  miserably  kill  the  poor  insects  because  we 
are  not  used  to  seeing  plants  do  such  things,  but 
it  is  not  more  cruel  than  what  the  birds  do  in 
catching  insects  for  food,  or  what  some  insects  do 
to  others,  or  what  man  himself  does  in  catching 
many  kinds  of  animals  for  food  and  clothing. 

There  is  another  kind  of  pitcher-plant  that  is 
common  in  the  bogs  of  the  Eastern  parts  of  the 
United  States.  Its  pitchers  are  wider  across  and 
lie  partly  on  the  ground.  But  they  are  the 
same  sort  of  traps  for  insects.  They  even  have  a 
little  strip  of  nectar  that  reaches  from  the  ground 
up  to  the  mouth  of  the  pitcher.  This  lures  also 
crawling  insects  such  as  ants  which  follow  up 
the  nectar  path  until  they  come  to  the  mouth  of  the 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS          229 


FIG.  76. — Pitcher  plant  from  Eastern  States. 


230  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

pitcher  and  fall  in.  The  sharp,  stiff  hairs  on  the 
inside  the  walls  of  the  pitcher,  make  it  impossible 
for  the  victim  ever  to  get  out  again. 

These  plants  have  rather  pretty  flowers  on  tall 
stalks.  It  looks  as  if  they  lifted  their  faces  high, 
so  as  not  to  see  the  terrible  things  that  go  on  in  the 
pitchers  down  below. 

There  is  another  kind  of  pitcher-plant  found  in 
the  marshy  lands  of  Florida  and  Georgia  that 
has  a  still  more  cunningly  made  trap.  It  has 
tall,  slender  pitchers.  At  the  top  of  each  is  a  good 
hood  that  comes  pretty  close  down  over  the  mouth. 
This  leaves  only  narrow  spaces  for  the  insects  to 
get  in  for  the  nectar.  The  most  wonderful  thing 
about  the  hood  is,  that  at  the  upper  part  there 
are  many  thin  places  that  let  the  light  shine 
through. 

These  are  like  many  little  window  panes.  When 
the  poor  fly  goes  to  fly  out  it  looks  around  for  an 
opening.  It  mistakes  the  light  windows  for  open- 
ings. It  dashes  against  them  and  down  it  falls 
into  the  water  pit  ready  for  it.  This  pitcher,  like 
that  of  other  pitcher-plants,  has  its  throat  lined 
with  spiny  hairs  pointing  down  so  that  the  unlucky 
fly  can  not  crawl  up  over  them. 

In  boggy  places  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains 
of  California  there  grows  still  another  kind  of 
pitcher-plant.  It  is  much  like  the  last  one  men- 
tioned. It  has  a  hood  fitting  close.  The  hood  has 
the  window-like  places.  The  pitcher  has  water 
and  stiff  hairs  in  it.  In  this  pitcher-plant  the 


PLANTS   THAT   TRAP   ANIMALS  231 


FIG.  77. — Pitcher  plant  from  mountains  in  California. 


232 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


hood  has  at  its  edge,  two 
leaf  like  projections  shaped 
like  a  fish  tail.  As  these 
wave  in  the  air,  they  may 
act  as  flags  to  show  the 
insects  where  to  find  the 
plant  or  they  may  be  good 
alighting  places.  At  any 
rate  its  pitcher  is  a  good 
fly  catcher.  And  if  you 
come  upon  a  bog  filled  with 
these  plants  on  a  warm 
summer's  day,  the  unpleas- 
ant odor  tells  of  the  thou- 
sands of  insects  the  plants 
have  caught  and  stored  up 
in  the  pitchers. 

The  most  beautiful  and        FIQ  78._Nepenthes> 
the  most  gracefully  shaped 

plant-pitchers,  are  the  ones  named  Nepenthes. 
They  do  not  grow  in  our  country,,  but  are  found 
in  tropical  countries.  Sometimes  they  are  to 


PLANTS   THAT   TRAP   ANIMALS  233 

be  seen  in  the  greenhouses  in  the  public  parks. 
There  are  a  number  of  kinds  of  this  form  of 
pitcher-plant. 

One  is  almost  a  vine  whose  leaves  are  tipped  with 
the  pitchers.  The  leaves  of  the  plant  are  long  and 
large  and  hang  down,  but  each  ends  in  a  long,  slen- 
der, stem-like  part  which  droops  down  for  quite  a 
distance,  and  then  gracefully  bends  upward  and 
bears  a  beautifully  shaped  pitcher  with  a  very 
pretty  lid  held  up  over  the  mouth. 

These  pretty  pitchers  started  the  name  pitcher- 
plant.  We  use  the  name  for  those  too,  which  are 
not  shaped  as  gracefully  and  perfectly  as  our 
pitchers. 

All  kinds  of  pitcher-plants  act  in  the  same  way. 
They  trap  insects  and  digest  them  as  food  which  is 
taken  into  the  plant  sap.  In  some  kinds,  where  the 
covers  of  the  pitchers  are  not  complete,  some  rain 
water  can  get  in.  Those  with  good  hoods  or  covers 
keep  the  rain  out  and  furnish  all  the  liquid  found  in 
the  pitchers  from  the*  plant's  body.  In  that  way 
they  are  just  like  stomachs  of  animals. 

But  even  in  those  forms  where  some  rain  water 
can  get  in,  the  plants  furnish  part  of  the  liquid 
which  has  power  to  digest  the  fleshy  parts  of  animals. 

THE  SUNDEW 

It  was  interesting  to  learn  that  the  pitcher 
plants  set  curiously  planned  traps  to  catch  insects 
and  kill  them  for  food.  Still  there  are  plants 
that  go  further  than  the  pitcher-plants.  Besides 


234 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


setting  traps  they  actually  make  movements  to 
catch  and  hold  the  poor  insects  until  they  are 
devoured.  This  seems  hard  to  believe  if  you 


FIG.  79. — Round-leaved    sundew. 


have  not  seen  them  at  work.  But  such  plants  are 
common  in  some  parts  of  the  world.  Anybody 
living  in  those  countries  can  see  them  whenever 
they  wish. 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS          235' 

One  group  of  such  plants  is  called  the  Sundews. 
Another  name  for  them  is  Drosera.  There  are 
many  kinds.  One  of  the  most  common  which  is 
found  in  this  country  and  in  European  countries  is 
called  the  round-leaved  sundew.  It  is  a  pretty 
little  plant,  growing  in  bogs  or  marshy  places. 
It  has  a  nodding  group  of  white  flowers  on  a  slender 
stalk  a  few  inches  high.  At  the  bottom  of  the 
stalk  right  next  to  the  ground,  is  a  cluster  of  round 
leaves,  each  about  half  an  inch  across.  These 
little  leaves  are  among  the  most  curious  things  in 
the  plant  world.  The  upper  surface  of  each  leaf  is 
covered  with  about  two  hundred  minute-  stalks 
each  ending  in  a  little  knob.  Indeed  we  might  say 
that  the  leaf  was  like  a  small  pin  cushion,  stuck  full 
of  pins.  Out  of  the  head  of  each  pin  there  oozes 
a  clear  liquid,  which  covers  it  like  a  bright  drop  of 
dew.  When  the  sun  shines  on  the  leaves  the  drops 
sparkle  and  make  a  pretty  object.  This  gives  the 
name  sundew  to  the  plant. 

But,  poor  little  fly,  beware!  If  you  think  this 
shimmering  dew  is  sweet  nectar  for  a  morning 
breakfast  and  fly  quickly  to  get  a  refreshing  drink, 
you  are  deceived.  You  might  just  as  well  have 
flown  right  into  a  spider's  web.  When  a  fly  alights 
on  the  deceitful  dewdrops  its  feet  stick  fast. 
When  it  tries  to  pull  out  its  legs,  they  get  in  deeper. 
As  it  struggles,  it  soon  gets  its  body,  and  wings  too, 
covered  with  this  sticky  mass. 

And  now  more  terrible  still,  the  pins  of  the  pin 
cushion  begin  to  move.  The  heads  bend  toward 


236  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

the  fly,  first  those  nearest  it  and  then  those  farther 
away,  until  they  all  close  down  on  it  and  hold  it 
fast  until  it  is  killed.  The  little  pins  are  very  much 
alive.  They  act  just  like  the  tentacles  of  some 
animals. 

When  the  fly  dies,  it  is  still  held  by  these  little 
pins  and  more  liquid  is  poured  out  around  it. 
This  liquid  has  substances  in  it  which  like  the 
liquids  in  our  stomachs  and  intestines,  can  digest 
flesh.  So  the  fly  is  held  till  its  flesh  is  all  digested 
and  taken  into  the  plant  as  food.  Nothing  is  left 
but  the  hard  parts  of  the  fly's  body,  legs  and  wings. 
This  may  take  a  few  days.  The  dry  remains  of  the 
dead  and  digested  fly  are  then  blown  away  by  the 
wind.  The  pins  rise  up  again  and  the  bright  dew- 
like  drops  come  out  on  the  pin  heads  and  the 
innocent  looking  leaf  is  ready  for  another  unsus- 
pecting insect. 

The  largest  number  of  insects  caught  by  the  sun- 
dew is  of  the  small  kinds  of  flies,  gnats  and  midges, 
but  it  has  been  known  to  catch  and  devour  as  large 
an  insect  as  a  small  dragon  fly.  Now,  as  the  long 
body  of  such  an  insect  can  not  be  covered  by  one 
leaf,  other  leaves  come  to  the  help  of  this  leaf  and, 
working  together,  they  manage  to  hold  the  insect 
and  digest  it.  Such  action  by  a  plant  is  so  very 
unusual  that  it  is  but  little  short  of  marvelous. 
Even  by  scientific  students  it  is  considered  one  of 
the  most  wonderful  things  that  any  plant  does. 

As  we  have  already  pointed  out,  there  are  very 
many  kinds  of  Sundews  or  Droseras.  They  differ 


PLANTS   THAT  TRAP   ANIMALS  237 

in  the  size  and  shapes  of  the  leaves  and  in  their 
flowers.  They  are  found  in  most  parts  of  the 
world.  They  are  all  alike  in  this  wonderful  way 
of  catching  and  digesting  insects. 

VENUS  FLYTRAP 

The  most  wonderful  of  all  the  insect  eating 
plants  is  the  Venus  Flytrap.  Another  name  is 
Dionsea.  Its  leaves  have  movements  quick  enough 
to  catch  a  fly.  Its  trap  is  strong  enough  to  hold 
the  poor  animal  until  it  is  digested.  Its  trap  is  as 
artfully  planned  and  is  as  surely  a  trap  as  is  the 
best  steel  trap  for  catching  rats  or  minks.  When  it 
first  became  known  that  it  caught  insects  and  ate 
them,  it  astonished  botanists  as  well  as  other 
people  to  find  that  a  plant  was  able  to  do  such 
marvelous  things. 

The  Venus  Flytrap  is  a  very  prettly  little  plant 
found  only  in  bogs  in  the  eastern  parts  of  North 
Carolina  and  farther  south  as  far  as  Florida.  Its 
flowers  are  a  group  of  white  blossoms  on  a  stalk  a 
half  a  foot  high.  At  the  ground  the  flower  stalk  is 
surrounded  by  a  cluster  of  leaves,  each  carrying 
on  its  end  a  remarkable  insect  trap.  A  single  leaf 
is  one  or  two  inches  in  length.  Its  stem  is  broad 
and  green.  At  the  end  are  two  rounded  parts 
opposite  one  another. 

The  outer  edges  of  these  are  armed  with  a  row 
of  spikes.  On  the  middle  of  each  rounded  part  are 
three  slender  stiff  hairs.  The  three  little  hairs  are 
the  triggers,  the  spines  at  the  edges  are  the  teeth 


238 


INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  80. — Venus   flytrap. 


PLANTS  THAT  TRAP  ANIMALS          239 

of  the  trap.     When  the  two  halves  of  the  trap  lie 
open,  it  is  all  set  for  its  victim. 

Now  let  an  unlucky  fly  alight  on  the  trap  in  a 
way  to  touch  one  of  the  tiny  hair  triggers,  and 
before  it  knows  what  has  happened  the  two  sides 
spring  together,  and  the  spike  teeth  cross  each 
other  and  the  poor  fly  is  held  in  a  strong  death 
grip. 

A  liquid  comes  out  of  the  surface  of  the  leaf 
that  digests  the  soft  parts  of  the  fly.  It  may  take  a 
few  days  to  digest  the  fly,  but  the  trap  holds  the 
body  fast  all  the  time  till  it  is  finished.  Then 
the  trap  opens,  and  the  liquid  stops  coming  out  of  the 
leaf.  The  digested  part  has  been  taken  up  by 
the  leaf.  The  dried  remains  of  the  fly's  body  can 
drop  out  now,  or  be  blown  away  by  the  wind.  The 
trap  is  set  for  another  victim. 

Flies  are  not  the  only  insects  caught  by  this 
treacherous  plant.  Many  kinds  come  into  its 
traps.  Sometimes  a  tiny  insect  can  crawl  out 
between  the  teeth,  or  an  insect  may  be  too  large 
to  be  covered  by  the  trap  and  may  manage  to 
break  away.  But  great  numbers  of  those  that 
are  caught  cannot  get  out  of  this  cruel  grip  and  die 
a  slow  death  in  its  jaws. 

Although  the  little  trigger  hairs  will  start  the 
trap  closing  if  touched  ever  so  lightly  by  something 
solid,  like  a  thread  or  a  fly's  leg,  the  beating  of  rain 
drops  or  the  rush  of  the  wind  will  not  make  them 
start  the  action  of  the  trap. 

A  very  strange  thing  too,  about  this  trap  is, 


240  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

that  if  you  touch  the  triggers  with  something  that 
has  no  digestible  food  about  it,  like  a  bit  of  thread, 
or  paper  or  cork,  it  will  close  the  trap  but  will 
not  hold  it  long.  But  if  the  thing  caught  has 
nourishing  food  in  it,  like  an  insect  or  even  a  bit 
of  meat  or  cheese  it  will  hold  it  till  it  is  digested 
even  if  it  takes  several  days. 

It  is  certainly  a  -strange  thing  that  a  plant  leaf 
can  tell  in  some  way  the  difference  between  things 
that  are  meat  food  and  things  that  are  not.  In 
this  it  is  like  the  sundew.  The  thing  that  makes 
the  Venus  Flytrap  more  wonderful  than  the 
wonderful  sundews,  is  that  it  has  the  strangely 
delicate  or  touchy  hair  triggers  that  bring  about 
the  quick  clasping  of  the  jaws  of  the  trap. 

Of  course  none  of  these  are  more  wonderful  than 
the  movements  that  we  see  animals  do  every  day. 
But  we  are  used  to  that  in  animals,  and  besides 
we  know  that  they  have  brains,  nerves,  muscles  and 
bones.  And  we  can  see  something  of  how  they 
work.  But  to  see  a  little  plant  which  does  -not 
have  brain,  nerves  and  muscles  like  ours,  do  such 
things  is  enough  to  make  even  the  greatest  of 
scientists  wonder. 


THE  CAMPUS  SICKLE-BILL 

BIRD  LIFE  ON  THE  STANFORD  CAMPUS 

Every  year  a  larger  number  of  birds  go  to  school 
on  the  Campus  than  there  are  students  who  go  to 
the  University  for  their  education.  The  studies 
the  young  birds  take  are  quite  different  from  those 
the  students  take  in  the  University  but  they  are 
very  important  for  the  birds,  just  as  important  for 
them  as  are  the  studies  of  the  University  for  the 
students.  What  the  birds  learn  is  so  important 
for  them  that  if  they  did  not  learn  it  well  they 
could  not  get  along  at  all. 

They  learn  to  fly  among  the  first  things.  If 
they  did  not  learn  that  well,  the  cats,  dogs,  rats, 
skunks,  weasles,  minks,  coons,  foxes,  wild  cats  and 
coyotes  and  many  others  of  their  terrible  enemies 
would  soon  catch  them  and  make  an  end  of  them. 
Then  each  kind  of  bird  must  learn  what  kind  of 
food  is  best  for  it  and  where  to  find  it  and  how  to 
get  it.  Some  live  on  seeds  of  different  kinds. 
Some  on  fruits  such  as  cherries  and  berries  of 
many  kinds,  which  they  must  learn  to  find  when 
they  are  ripe.  Others  live  on  insects  or  worms. 
These  are  of  very  many  kinds  which  know  how  to 
.fly,  or  run  or  crawl  away  and  hide  from  the  birds, 
so  that  birds  have  to  learn  where  to  look  for  them 

16  241 


242  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

and  how  to  catch  them,  and  if  each  bird  does  not 
know  his  lesson  on  foods  well,  he  will  surely  starve. 

Then,  further,  the  birds  have  to  learn  how  to 
build  nests.  Each  kind  of  a  bird  builds  the  kind 
of  nest  that  best  suits  it.  There  are  then  many 
kinds  of  nests  and  some  of  them  are  very  hard  to 
make,  and  each  bird  has  only  one  stiff  little  bill 
with  which  to  make  its  nest.  I  do  not  see  how  it 
can  do  it  but  in  some  way  it  learns  how  to  perform 
the  difficult  task. 

Then  they  must  learn  to  care  for  their  eggs  and 
hatch  out  the  little  birds,  then  feed  and  care  for 
them  till  they  are  grown.  Then  they  must  teach 
the  young  birds  to  fly  and  hunt  for  their  own  food. 

Besides  all  this  the  birds  learn  to  call  to  each 
other.  They  learn  a  bird  language.  And  they 
also  learn  to  sing. 

Now  all  this  is  their  education  and  each  one 
must  get  it  to  live  a  bird's  life.  It  makes  them  a 
busy  lot  of  people.  They  get  up  early  in  the  morn- 
ing and  hurry  around  all  day.  It  is  quite  a  bit  of 
fun  to  watch  them.  They  are  certainly  as  busy  in 
the  campus  trees  and  bushes  as  the  students  are  in 
the  University  buildings. 

There  are  a  great  many  kinds  of  birds  which 
make  their  homes  on  the  campus  and  all  are  very 
interesting.  Each  kind  has  its  own  bird  language 
and  many  have  some  kind  of  song.  Some  of  the 
songs  are  rather  short  but  the  best  singer  among 
them  all  is  the  Sickle-bill  and  it  is  about  this  nice 
bird  that  I  wish  to  tell  you  at  this  time. 


THE  CAMPUS  SICKLE-BILL  243 

THE  SICKLE-BILL 

It  is  sometimes  called  the  California  Thrasher. 
There  is  a  bird  in  the  Eastern  States  much  like 
this  bird  which  is  named  the  Brown  Thrasher 
which  is  also  a  fine  singer.  So  they  call  our  bird 
the  California  Thrasher.  Most  children  call  him 
Sickle-bill  because  his  bill  is  curved  something 
like  a  sickle.  He  is  certainly  a  fine  singer.  There 
is  one  which  lives  in  the  park  next  to  the  Art 
Gallery.  Almost  every  day  between  one  or  two 
o'clock  I  go  down  to  hear  him  sing.  I  am  almost 
sure  to  find  him  perched  in  the  very  top  of  one  of 
the  monkey-puzzle  trees  or  young  redwood  trees, 
the  highest  place  he  can  find. 

There  he  sings  a  most  charming  song.  It  is 
longer  than  the  song  of  any  bird  around  here. 
Sometimes  the  song  is  kept  up  as  much  as  half  an 
hour.  Then  down  he  drops  among  the  bushes 
where  he  runs  about  hunting  for  his  dinner.  In  a 
little  while  he  is  on  the  top  of  another  tree  pouring 
forth  another  song.  If  you  wait  for  him  he  may  give 
you  several  songs  in  one  afternoon  from  different 
trees.  Sickle-bills  generally  choose  for  their  home 
a  place  where  there  are  many  low  bushes.  They 
are  very  shy  birds,  hiding  most  of  the  time  in  the 
bushes  where  they  live.  They  run  along  the 
ground  quickly  from  one  bush  to  another. 

I  love  to  watch  this  sickle-bill  singing.  His 
food  is  the  insects  and  worms  which  he  finds  in  the 
ground  under  the  bushes.  Here  is  where  his  big 


244  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 


FIG.  81. — The  California  thrasher.     The  sickle-bill. 


THE    CAMPUS   SICKLE-BILL  245 

sickle-shaped  bill  is  useful.  He  digs  up  the  leaves 
and  soil  with  it.  He  can  surely  make  the  dirt  fly. 
He  uses  his  bill  as  a  pick  or  hoe.  He  strikes  it  into 
the  dirt  and  jerks  it  toward  himself.  As  he  does 
this  rapidly  the  dirt  and  leaves  scatter  behind  him 
in  a  lively  manner.  Then  he  looks  over  the  dug  up 
ground  to  pick  up  what  insects  or  worms  he  has 
uncovered.  He  then  jumps  to  a  new  spot  and  is 
at  it  again.  But  at  the  least  sign  of  danger  up  he 
slips  into  a  bush,  hiding  till  he  thinks  the  danger  is 
past.  Then  he  hops  down  again  and  runs  from 
bush  to  bush  and  gets  busy  at  his  digging. 

I  don't  see  how  a  hawk  could  ever  catch  a 
sickle-bill  for  he  keeps  himself  so  much  out  of 
sight  and  is  so  quick  to  hide  away.  The  only  time 
he  is  to  be  seen  very  well  is  when  he  is  in  the  top  , 
of  a  tree  singing  and  then  at  the  first  hint  of  dan- 
ger down  he  drops  through  the  limbs  of  the  tree 
out  of  sight  and  harm. 

FEEDING  THE  SICKLE-BILL 

The  sickle-bill  which  lives  in  the  park  by  the  art 
gallery,  which  Alice  and  I  have  named  Bird  Park, 
has  become  tame  enough  to  let  us  feed  him.  Some- 
times we  visit  this  Park  to  watch  him.  We  get 
under  a  tree  and  sit  quietly  with  our  bread  or  cake 
crumbs  ready.  Soon  we  see  him  peeping  out 
under  one  of  the  bushes.  I  throw  some  bread 
crumbs  toward  him  and  he  comes  running-  toward 
us  to  get  the  crumbs,  coming  very  close  to  us, 
but  just  out  of  our  reach.  Then  we  get  a  good 


246  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

look  at  him.  He  picks  up  a  crumb  and  if  it  is 
small  enough  he  swallows  it  but  if  it  is  too  big 
he  runs  off  with  it  and  then  beats  it  to  pieces 
small  enough  and  soon  comes  back  for  another 
piece. 

Some  other  birds  come  around  for  their  share. 
If  they  are  small  sparrows  he  may  drive  them 
away.  But  once  there  came  a  jay-bird  plunging 
down  among  the  crumbs  and  grabbed  the  biggest 
piece,  just  like  a  jay,  and  shot  off  with  it  like  a 
blue  streak.  Sickle-bill  doesn't  seem  to  like  a 
jay  and  is  a  little  afraid  of  him.  After  he  ate 
several  crumbs  he  slipped  away  and  soon  we  heard 
him  singing,  perched  on  the  top  of  a  monkey- 
puzzle  tree.  After  a  good  long  fine  song  he  came 
down  for  some  more  crumbs. 

One  day  he  came  three  times  for  crumbs  and 
gave  me  three  songs  from  different  treetops. 
At  one  time  when  a  shower  of  rain  came  up 
he  sang  right  through  it.  This  time  he  sang 
twenty-eight  minutes.  I  timed  him  by  my  watch. 
Usually  his  song  is  loud  and  clear  but  sometimes 
he  sings  it  very  softly  as  if  he  were  humming  it  over 
to  himself. 

The  old  gardener  who  takes  care  of  this  park 
also  feeds  the  sickle-bill  and  they  are  good  friends. 
Sometimes  a  thoughtless  student  will  walk  right 
over  the  gardener's  nice  raked  beds  leaving  great 
holes  in  them  with  his  feet.  This  makes  the  old 
gardener  greatly  provoked,  but  when  the  sickle-bill 
pours  out  one  of  his  fine  songs  it  makes  the  gar- 


THE    CAMPUS    SICKLE-BILL  247 

dener  feel  better.     The  gardener  calls  the  bird 
Bill  and  it  will  come  for  food  at  his  call. 

RELATIVES  OF  THE  CALIFORNIA  THRASHER 

There  are  several  other  kinds  of  thrashers 
with  sickle-bills,  in  parts  of  California  and  nearby 
States.  They  all  have  beautiful  songs  and  are 
as  interesting  birds  as  our  Sickle-bill.  Children 
in  this  part  of  the  country  will  be  delighted  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  one  that  lives  near 
them.  Those  who  live  in  the  Eastern  States  may 
find  as  charming  a  friend  in  the  Brown  Thrasher 
which  makes  its  home  with  them. 

That  you  may  compare  our  favorite  with  the 
one  you  know  I  will  tell  you  of  his  looks  and  give 
you  his  picture.  He  is  a  pretty  good  sized  bird 
about  as  large  as  our  jay-bird.  He  has  a  strong, 
long  bill  curved  like  a  sickle.  The  tail  is  long  and 
he  holds  it  up  well  when  he  runs  along  the  ground. 
He  is  a  fast  runner.  His  clothes  are  very  modest 
in  color;  a  sort  of  slate  or  gray  color.  The  throat 
is  light  in  color  and  on  each  side  of  his  head  and 
neck  behind  the  eye  are  dark  lines.  The  feathers 
on  the  under  side  just  beneath  the  root  of  the  tail 
are  reddish  brown.  While  he  is  a  very  neat-looking 
bird  he  is  not  at  all  showy.  But  he  makes  up  for 
any  lack  of  show  in  feathers  by  the  beauty  of  his 
song.  Sickle-bills  or  California  Thrashers  are 
sort  of  cousins  to  the  mocking-birds  which  are 
common  in  the  southern  part  of  California.  The 
mocking-birds  are  fine  singers  too  and  are  very 


248  INTERESTING   NEIGHBORS 

interesting  because  they  can  sing  other  bird's 
songs  as  well  as  their  own.  Once  in  a  great  while  a 
mocking-bird  visits  the  campus.  But  the  dear 
old  Sickle-bills  stay  with  us  all  the  year.  He  is 
one  of  our  best  and  most  constant  friends. 


10rn-l2,'23 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


